As a veterinary provider do you commonly see otitis externa in your canine patients? Does it become a continuous problem for many of your clients and their pets? If you face these questions in your practice, then we can definitely help you. Otitis can be caused by many factors such as parasites, allergies, bacteria, fungi, etc. and traditional commercially manufactured treatments typically require multiple drops in the affected ear(s), multiple times a day, which is challenging to any owners. Owner administration of these drops does not always guarantee the medication reaches the horizontal ear canal where most infections occur, therefore treatment failure and bacterial resistance commonly occurs. Osurnia®, a commercially manufactured gel helps to solve the problem of reaching the horizontal ear, but unfortunately, it does not offer coverage for Pseudomonas, one of the most common pathogens found in canine otitis externa. At Pharmacy Solutions we can compound a thermo-reversible bio-adhesive gel called Poloxamer which means:
• When the gel is cold (refrigerated), it exists in a fluid state which helps the API’s (active pharmaceutical ingredients) reach the tiniest crevices in both the horizontal and vertical ear canal.
• When the gel is exposed to warmth (body temperature), it immediately forms into a gel, keeping the API’s in place within the ear for an extended period of time (usually about a week).
These otic gels are administered by the veterinarian in the office and typically have the patient follow-up within, 5 to 7 days after the initial dose to determine if further doses are needed. Many API’s can be incorporated into the gel that we compound, as selected by the veterinarian since compounding does not limit us to specific drug combos. Below are a few examples of formulas that we could compound for canine otitis externa:
• Enrofloxacin 2%/Ketoconazole 2%/Triamcinolone 0.25% Poloxamer Otic Gel
• Amikacin 1%/Ketoconazole 2%/Betamethasone 0.1% Poloxamer Otic Gel
Due to the bio-adhesive and thermo-reversible properties of Poloxamer gel, there are many other great applications for