The ear discharge of fifteen dogs was examined for cytological and microbiological evaluation along with antibiotic sensitivity testing. The ear discharge of ten healthy dogs was also analyzed for comparative data. Cytological analysis showed that inflammatory cells and rod shaped organisms in highly infected cases. Otic microbiota in healthy cases revealed Bacillus spp. and Staphylococcus spp., while in clinical cases Pseudomonas spp., E coli, Klebsiella spp. and Alcaligenes spp., were also identified by using universal primer 16S rRNA PCR. The yeast Malassezia pachydermatis was isolated from ear discharge of all dogs. Among the anti – microbial drugs tested, Gentamicin had the most effective response against the otic microbes, followed by ciprofloxacin while neomycin had the least

The objective of this study was to assess the brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) wave pattern in normal dogs as well as those with otitis externa (OE). The BAER test was performed on twenty five dogs with varying degrees of OE. Our study found that BAER of ears with severe OE had prolonged latencies of all waves and lower wave I to wave V amplitude ratio compared to the mildly affected or normal ears. However the inter – peak latencies were unaffected. Thus BAER can be a useful diagnostic tool to assess the hearing impairment due to conductive deafness in OE.