I had a Lab that had chronic ear issues. Fought it for years. Turned out she had some type of immune disorder which eventually was her demise. Vets never found that early-on. Hank gets infections in 1 ear; since I started cleaning his ears weekly there have been no issues. I sincerely hope you can resolve this, Mark. I'm of the belief that long, floppy ears act like vacuum cleaners. When I still hunted Hank, I inspected & cleaned his ears after every outing. I have used several different commercial cleaning solutions; I squirt-in the solution, massage the ear gently with my thumb & forefinger and then wipe-out with a soft (Viva) paper towel. I twist a corner of the towel and manipulate it down into the ear canal; the towel is far more absorbent than a swab and there is no potential to impart any damage like can be possible when using a Q-tip type swab.