Hi Paula,
The first step would be to try the hydrolyzed protein diet. This will give you a lot of information-if she improves, you will know you are dealing with a food sensitivity and if she does not, then something else is causing the problems. Changing the diet at any time will not cause any changes in the allergy blood testing.
My girl used to get bad yeast infections in one of her ears, and it was a strain that did not respond well to antibiotic ear drops the vet prescribed. The vet and I decided to try a different approach and to use Zymox Otic, and that cleared the yeast infection up immediately. Chewy sells Zymox Otic with or without hydrocortisone. My vet suggested that we start with hydrocortisone since we were dealing with soreness and redness and then after the redness went away I switched to the plain Zymox Otic. I now use the Zymox Ear Cleanser rather than what I was buying from the vet-seems to work better and is more gentle.
