Dear Dr. John,
My Golden Retriever is about to turn 14. As you might expect, she has several typical maladies associated with old dog age, including arthritis and weakness in getting up and down, cloudy eyes and reduced vision, poor hearing, and less energy. She is on several medications such as Amlodipine, Trazodone, Meloxicam, and Tresaderm. We used to live in California where she was started on all of these medications. We have been East for over six months, and she is doing OK. She has had chronic ear infections for years and, as a result, developed stenotic ear canals and calcification. My husband was just offered a position back West. Our previous vet told us that flying with the ear calcification could be damaging to her and we want to avoid that. Since she has been on this coast, her ear issues have completely resolved. Do you think we could fly her across the country when we move again? B.McD.
Dear B. McD.,
As I review the various medications that you dog is taking, I suspect that one is for blood pressure, one for anxiety, one for pain and inflammation management, and one for ear infections, that being the Tresaderm. Chronic ear infections can be extremely painful to dogs and can lead to narrowed ear canals and calcification known as otosclerosis.
The fact that your dog’s ears have completely cleared up on this side of the country mean that you either treated them long enough to finally clear up the infections or that she possibly had atopic allergies before that are gone since she either outgrew them or is exposed to a different environment now. I would have a good otoscopic examination done to visualize the eardrums (tympanum) to be sure they are clear, glistening, and not ruptured. If the ears look normal at this time, I suspect that she should be able to travel by air without any problems. Realize that when you return out West that the allergic ear problems, if that is what they were, might well return.
Using the Trazadone and meloxicam should help ease any discomfort she might feel on the plane or on any given day. Good luck with the move and keeping her comfortable.
Dr. John de Jong owns and operates the Boston Mobile Veterinary Clinic.He can be reached at 781-899-9994.
