How we cured our dogs chronic ear infections, plus homemade dog food recipe

Bethany Montgomery
Jan 12, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Jun 22, 2025

Our furry child Bubba, has had ear infections since he was young. We were constantly cleaning green, yellow, and white gunk, which smelled terrible, out of his ears. We've spent thousands of dollars on vet bills, medications, and different food items just trying to determine what could be wrong.

When it started getting really bad, we thought, It has to be something he is eating. We asked the vet, and they said it was some allergy. The most likely culprit was protein. We wondered about grains, and they said no, it would be a protein allergy. We received this consistent information from 2 different vet practices and at least 5 vets. So with this new info, we started trying new foods. We switched him from chicken to beef, to salmon, to pork, to turkey..... Nothing fixed his ear infection. We had to constantly make vet visits to get ointments and drops, and antibiotics to clear it up, only for it to come back days later.

In 2023, we noticed Bubba was getting pretty clumsy. He was walking funny, and his head was tilted. We also saw that his eyes were darting back and forth. We immediately started researching and found that what Bubba had was Vestibular Disease, and it was due to chronic ear infections.

From stories online, these symptoms usually lasted about a month with antibiotics and other treatments. Before 2016, people were actually putting their animals down because this was not a known disease. It's very scary and will seriously make you think your fur baby is dying. They can't walk or eat correctly, and are constantly restless and trying to move around. He was throwing up nonstop due to the dizziness. This lasted several weeks.

We decided it was time that I started making his food. I was adamant it had to be what he was eating that was causing these issues. I started to make ground turkey, brown rice, green beans, and carrots in the crock pot. I topped it with pumpkin and sardines, and also gave him an Omega fish oil pill that he eats up like it's a treat. We changed his treats to human-grade treats and also made him Greek yogurt and blueberry bars. To say he loved this change in food was an understatement. He LOVED his new food. But he still had his ear infection, which we cleaned out daily.

We finally concluded that he was just going to have chronic ear infections for the rest of his life. That was until I started Functional Nutrition classes. I learned so much about inflammation and food, and it made me wonder if Bubba has been allergic to grains this whole time. I removed the rice from his meals and switched it over to potatoes. Within 2 weeks, his ear infection was completely gone. We were shocked. This whole time, all it took was to remove grains. In 2025, our sweet baby will be 13 years young. He still acts like a puppy, and we hope we have many more years with him.

Below are some of the recipes we feed Bubba. He does great on this diet and hasn't had any issues with ear infections or stomach upset since being on this. If you make your dogs' meals, let me know what you feed them in the comments.

Bubba's Homemade Feast

I put all the ingredients in the crockpot on high for 4 hours. Once done, I will take a masher and mash all ingredients before transferring them to a container. It usually lasts 9-12 meals over 3-4 days.

3 lbs Organic/Natural Ground Turkey
3 bags of frozen veggies - I change it up and use carrots, green beans, spinach, broccoli, peas, and cauliflower.
2-3 potatoes, peeled and cut up into cubes
Water and/or a little low-sodium bone broth

Toppers: 2 TBSP pumpkin, 1-2 sardines, fish oil pill.