Otitis externa is a common clinical problem that often requires complex pharmacological therapies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a topical aural emulsion containing lactoferricin, verbascoside and glycerophosphoinositol
lysine in the treatment of erythematous otitis externa with microbial overgrowth. Ten dogs with erythematous otitis and bacterial and/or fungal overgrowth were included according to good general practice guidelines. The animals were evaluated at the time of inclusion in the study (V1), day 7 (V7), day 14 (V14) and 7 days after the end of treatment (V21). At each control, clinical parameters were evaluated (by a VAS and modified CADESI) and cytological smears of ear wax were examined. Every sample was quantitatively assessed for epithelial cells, cocci, rods and Malassezia spp. Statistical analysis was performed with Shapiro-Wilk and Kruskal-Wallis tests for normally distributed data; Friedman’s test was used for non-parametric data and repeated analyses. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. There were statistically significant improvements of all parameters after 7 days of treatment and these improvements persisted for at least 1 week after cessation of topical treatment. This pilot study suggests that daily use of an emulsion containing lactoferricin, verbascoside and glycerophosphoinositol lysine for 2 weeks is effective in reducing clinical signs and microbial overgrowth in recurrent otitis externa.