Ellie Mae is a very sweet, four-year old English Coonhound who we rescued from the Lancaster SC shelter about two months ago when she was within hours of being euthanized, and transported her to PA to find her forever home.  While Buddy Rescue has provided Ellie Mae with basic medical care, including all vaccines, spay surgery and microchip, Ellie Mae also suffers from advanced ear infections in both her ears, due to the neglect of her original owner for years to provide the necessary care and treatment of ear infections.  As a result, Ellie Mae has severe swelling and infections in her inner ear canals that cannot properly drain, and her inner ear flaps are swollen and infected, all likely causing her severe pain and discomfort for years.  With your help, we can provide the necessary treatment to cure the infections and return Ellie Mae’s ears to more normal function and appearance, but more importantly to eliminate the pain and discomfort she has suffered for too long. 

Without treatment, Ellie Mae ears will never heal, likely causing more pain and discomfort and perhaps secondary infections in other areas.  Treatment protocol includes very strong antibiotics including cyclosporine, which are extremely expensive medications and taxing to Ellie Mae’s body, but necessary to try to shrink the swelling in her ears.  This medication course followed by one of two surgery types that will either partially or totally remove the inflamed tissue including portions of her ear canal so the infection can drain properly, will be necessary to cure Ellie Mae of the infections that have plagued her for years.  Won’t you help us help Ellie Mae so she can go on to live her new life as a happy and healthy girl, no longer plagued by pain and discomfort, so she can find her new forever family. 

Please support Ellie Mae's ear medication and surgery by contributing to her Chip-In!

  Click here to link to Ellie Mae's Chip-In page!

From the pictures of the outside of Ellie Mae’s ears, her ears look fairly normal, although they lack the softness you would expect from hound ear flaps.  But when you lift her ear flaps as in the next picture, you see what is a “cauliflower” ear appearance, the result of inflamed cartilage and skin tissue that are an outgrowth from the inner ear infections that were never treated.  However, the real problem lies further in her ears in what the vet has determined to be severe infections in both inner ear canals, with such swelling of the tissue within the ear canals that the infection cannot drain and is trapped, continuing to breed infection.  Her constant ear-flapping is a sure sign that these infections are causing constant pain and discomfort and her only relief has been to shake her head to flap her ears to try to find some relief and to rub her ears on hard surfaces, causing more damage and harm to the delicate ear flap tissue.

Ellie Mae's left ear

Ellie Mae's right ear

Ellie Mae's outer ear flap