Deaf Hearing Dog? Scary!

I have a dog whom Ann and I adopted. Since she died I have trained him to bark at anyone knocking on the door, ringing the door bell, and he comes to get me. He also hates and fears the sound of a smoke detector going off, so wakes me up if it happens at night. No fires here, just low battery warnings. A couple of weeks ago he was having dreadful allergy problems and his ear was very red, according to a friend. I took him to the vet. I was given some steroid medication, told to use a lot of it each day, (one time per day) and that I couldn't hurt the dog by putting the long part of the tube to be inserted into his ear all the way in. Since a dog's ear is shaped like an L, I did this, turning tubed of med. upside down, then masaged ear and underneath ear. My dog has lost hearing. I am scared! He doesn't hear knocks at the door, doesn't hear me getting his food ready, unless I bang Very hard and for some time on bottom of his stainless steel pan. Doesn't hear smoke detector at all. When I called animal clinic I talked to a different vet who said the steroids can damage auditory nerve. What the hell? Then vet who prescribed med. with instructions for its use wants to do tests, after all, he is an older dog, might have a disease process (diabetes, Kushing Syndrome) happening to cause deafness. Tests will cost Another $100, Plus office visit, don't Think so! This dog was Badly abused before we got him. If he's sleeping and I trip over him, he thinks I'm Punishing him, I want to cry. When he could hear I didn't trip over him. He is scared of other dogs, uncertain. I try to make sure there is plenty of light in a room where I am, so he can see me. Glad I trained him to Seeing Eye Dog hand signals, adding some for "sit" and "up," meaning it's time to go up the step into the house and stop nosing for now. I have tried speaking and he ignores me. But when I use hand signals, he does what I'm asking. He can't hear verbal praise, so I pat him more and give more bits of treats. I have a vibrating pager, and if I remember to place a sound monitor by the doorbell, it signals me. But I feel grief and a lot of fear at this change. Did online research and if his hearing loss is caused by steroids, hearing doesn't recover after med.s are stopped. I stopped med.s and called vet when I realized my friend-dog was losing hearing. Will try to take him to different vet tomorrow and have ears examined, he was Fine until steroid use. I am no DVM. and can't say if he has some other problem. But he Still seems Fine, only he can barely hear the Loudest of sounds. On the more pleasant feeling side, my sister gave me a long leash and I can either keep my dog with me or at least lead him into the room where I am, so he will know where to find me if he needs to go outside, etc. I have to go looking for him to feed him. Wonder if stomping on kitchen floor at food time would help, he might come to feel the vibrations, if I do this and bang on pan. Another moore pleasant thing is that I may have discovered some legal exceptions to CPSIA, for small batch importers of Fair Trade, who have Gross revenues of Less than a million dollars per year. They may not sell items to kids containing "black jacquard dye" but all other fabrics which are dyed Before being used for dolls, and all embroidery thread and yarn Seems to be ok. The problem may come with Painted fabrics, yarns, etc. Bright paint often contains lead. Metal such as snaps, zippers, hooks and eyes or metal buttons may be painted and so contain lead. A small batch importer Must comply with CPSIA, (please check Government CPSC website for ways to comply) but Does Not have to do Testing. A good resource is also: sandlertrade.com One way to test for paint on metal or children's jewelry is to scrape it and see if paint comes off. If it does, you may be dealing with lead paint, Not Allowed. Hope this info. helps someone. Been practicing signs I've learned each day, hope my instructor will be pleasantly surprised Tuesday."