I'm not really sure when Zymox became available on the market, but I recently "discovered" this great product.
What actually happened is that one of the many drug sales reps that come by our clinic every few weeks tried to talk me into trying this great new ear treatment he had. He made it sound too good to be true and I've already tried many, many other highly touted treatments that turned out to be poor or only so-so.
This one supposedly worked enzymatically to digest wax, pus, and other crud in the ear canal leaving it nice and clean.
Well, he got me to try a few bottles, and Lo; they worked well.
We vets see a lot of pets with chronic ear problems. I quickly ordered a couple of dozen bottles and called clients who I knew were constantly fighting ear infections in their dogs. In all but a couple of cases, Zymox worked really well.
Zymox is a bottle of clear looking drops. You place a few drops into the ear canal and massage. 4 times daily for a few days. Once the ear is looking and feeling a lot better, once or twice a day is sufficient. You may be able to quit entirely after 1-3 weeks or you may need to treat periodically to keep things under control.
There are no known side effects except for the possibility of the ear canal being sensitive to the product. You can combine Zymox treatment with oral antibiotics etc, but you shouldn't mix Zymox with topical antibiotic ointments or apparently the antibiotic will kill the enzymatic action of the Zymox making it ineffective.
Zymox Otic ® (formerly Zymox-E ® )contains 3 active enzymes that have been shown to be antibacterial,antifungal and antiviral. Zymox Otic ® is the natural antibiotic free treatment of choice proven to be highly effective against yeast and bacterial infections. Completely safe and harmless if ingested by the animal. The once a day protocol makes it very to use.
Warning: Do not use on punctured eardrums. Do not use on pregnant or lactating females.
Each enzyme has its own unique properties and when combined, pack a powerful antimicrobial punch. The 3 enzymes are derived naturally from milk products so they are 100% safe and gentle. For years, it has been known that milk has a natural ability to kill bacteria, viruses and yeast.
Only recently have the protein and enzyme system responsible been identified and reproduced. The three most effective are Lactoperoxidase, Lysozyme and Lactoferrin. Their antimicrobial activities are briefly listed below:
Lactoperoxidase A known milk peroxidase which when combined together with hydrogen peroxide, thiocyanate and/or iodide produce a potent antibacterial system known as the Lactoperoxidase System. The hypohalous ions produced are either the hypothiocyanate ion or the hypoiodite ion. Both are bactericidal substances. Hypoiodite is also a known fungicidal agent. The antibacterial property of the Lactoperoxidase System is based upon inhabitation of vital bacterial metabolic enzymes brought on by their oxidation by hypothiocyanate or hypoiodite.
Lysozyme An enzyme present in milk and egg whites.
Lysozyme kills bacteria by disrupting the formation of a glycosidic bond between the two components of peptidoglycan, a constituent of the bacterial cell wall.
Lysozyme is effective against a number of bacteria including Escherichia coli and Salmonellae.
Lactoferrin An iron binding protein. It is found naturally in cow and human milk, tears, saliva, seminal fluid and in some white blood cells.
Lactoferrin is only partially saturated with iron (5 to 30 percent) so it has a high affinity towards iron.
Lactoferrin is bacteristatic against a wide range of microorganisms including gram-negative (coliforms) and gram-positive (staphylcoccus) bacteria.
Lactoferrin has the potential to inhibit the growth of bacteria and kill them by depriving them of iron, which is vital for bacterial growth.
Hey, this stuff works.
Disclaimers and General Comments
Thanks for visiting this site. I am a general practioner in a busy, high-volume clinic. I have no post doctoral training and am not a specialist in any veterinary discipline. I mention this for three reasons...first; most everything I put on these pages will be fairly accurate and hopefully useful...but the art of medicine is full of controversial treatment practices, theories, and occasionally hum bug that we Doctors unintentionally pass on as fact. Please forgive me if on occassion I turn out to be wrong, "behind the times", or in disagreement with another veterinarian.
The second reason I mention my lack of formal expertise is that I tackle a lot of subjects on these pages in hopes of helping you understand what's going on with your pet...but I want to make sure you understand I am not an expert authority on many of these topics. For instance, I know quite a bit about the basics of diabetes, hyperthyroidism, and cardiac disease, but I don't have a lot of experience or detail knowledge about treating these major diseases past the basic level. Just like a human general practioner; I refer these complicated cases to specialists.
The third reason? I am hoping that this web site will successfully attract a lot of viewers interested in the health of their pets and therefore attract other veterinarians and veterianary experts in their fields to add to this site in our common goal of improving pet health care and pet owner responsibility through education. Please feel free to eMail me articles and comments at foxnest@metacrawler.com I will gladly give you credit for your articles and link to your site or organization.
Thanks very much, Roger Ross DVM Seneca, South Carolina
PS Please don't expect me to answer all the eMails I am getting asking me how to treat your pet or to make comments on the treatment your vet recommends. The information on these pages is general in nature and I hope very helpful to your understanding, but to give specific medical advice about a specific patient requires a careful exam, the collection of information and laboratory data, monitoring of the patient and modification of the treatment depending on results.
It's also legally dangerous for me to answer specific medical questions without taking the time and care to evaluate the patient...even assuming I had the time... Once a veterinarian gives out medical advice, he or she may be held legally responsible for the results if things go wrong. And things do go wrong. Life can be fragile. Because we are aware of all the possible things that might go wrong, we vets tend not to spout off until we take the time to be reasonably sure we know what the situation is and that we have it under control. So, If you want professional answers about an actual patient...you'll need to go to your veterinarian and pay their fee...usually well worth it!
About this subject of getting professional answers; be careful. You can have alot of confidence in almost all vets. It's a rare vet who can get through our rigorous training without being highly competent...and fewer still who survive in practice long being careless. On the other hand, you surely must realize that there's a lot of whacky and ineffective animal medical care advice out there given by groomers, trainers, breeders, old flower children, new agers, psychics, and self appointed guru's.
At any rate, I will probably be unable to take the time to answer eMails about specific medical questions, personal questions, or respond to some of the hate mail I'm getting about my opinions.
God Bless, Roger Ross DVM
And One More Time: This site was not intended to help you avoid veterinary visits and treat a major pet health problem at home; In fact, I started this site partly because I wanted to help people understand that for a lot of veterinary problems it's unrealistic to expect even your vet to diagnois your pet's problem without performing some lab tests and radiographs...things you might not expect to need if you hadn't read my site. Even with the help of lab tests, radiographs, and possible trial and error type treatments, there are many instances where the exact diagnoisis is a mystery, or at least inconclusive, or poorly responsive to treatment, or simply serious or complicated enough to require referral to specialists or large veterinary medical centers.
This site was indeed intended to simplify some treatment topics that seemed to confuse a lot of people, but at the same time, I hoped that by reading this site, it would dawn on people that you don't just take your pet into the vet, get a "shot" , pay your bill, and expect whatever pet problem you had to be solved.
Loving, responsible pet care means going to the vet when problems occur...and understanding that good veterinary care requires attention to detail, a good exam, the possible expense of additional lab work, and careful treatment, monitoring, and follow up until the problem is improved as best as possible.
Once again, God Bless, Roger Ross DVM
