Dragonflyspit

This might sound crazy, but I started looking in this forum for answers to questions about a problem my dog has been having -- that's almost exactly like what you describe. He had persistent ear pain, but the vets couldn't find any infection. It took ages, and we went through a lot of vets, but eventually a new vet found a middle ear problem. Interestingly, it was NOT associated with any external ear infection, and the tympanic membrane didn't look inflamed or swollen or under pressure. It didn't even show up on a brain MRI, so other vets missed it, but eventually it ruptured and gave the condition away. Also interesting is that the cytology showed no infection in the fluid from the middle ear (which, by the time the TM ruptures, was a LOT). As of this posting, we don't know the cause of the fluid buildup in the middle ear, and we're just treating to prevent infection while his TM grows back.

He'd had a problem with his ears for at least 2.5 years before the TM ruptured, and we'd seen at least 5 different vets about it before the TM eventually ruptured for vet #6. All previous vets treated it as minor, and several essentially said it was my imagination (like I'm some kind of surrogate hypochondriac for my dog), but no one can argue now that he really did have something wrong, and it really did hurt.

I don't have any advice for you except to be persistent and don't let the doctors put you off or convince you it's not real. Maybe it won't be anything serious, but you don't want to have your eardrum burst in order to get the attention of your doctors.

Best of luck