How do you know if your dog is suffering?
Dog ear infections effect up to twenty percent of all dogs and is one of the top ten complaints dog owners have when they visit the vet. It is critical to stop infections early, otherwise chronic dog ear infections can result.
How do you know if your dog has an ear infection? Common symptoms are visible when dogs shake their heads or scratch at their ears. They may even moan or grunt while doing this. In an effort to make it stop hurting, they may rub their head on furniture or the floor. Ear infections often smell bad because of a black or yellow discharge from the ears. After a close examination of the ear, you may see redness and swelling around the canal and ear flap.
If the infection is allowed to progress, it may move from the outer ear to inner ear. If this happens, it can affect your dog’s hearing and may cause deafness. If your dog has an inner ear infection, it may start to feel dizzy and become disoriented. Or it may walk with its head tilted to one side or in circles.
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Why do they occur?
When you first see the symptoms of a dog ear infection, it is important to determine if the infection is due to bacteria, mites or yeast. A veterinarian can help you determine the source of the problem. While dog ear infections can be caused by an assortment of things, dog allergies are a common culprit. Out of the different allergies, a dog food allergy is a good place to start.
If your dog’s ears are infected, be sure to take him/her to a vet. Typically they will determine the cause of the ear infection and recommend a cleaning regimen.
Cleaning the ears
It is normally recommended that a dog’s ears be cleaned daily for two weeks after the dog ear infection is discovered. If you don’t feel comfortable cleaning the ears, you can ask your vet to do it for you. (We usually clean our dog’s ears because it is very easy.)
There are several over the counter ear cleaners that can be found at most pet supply stores.
- Insert a few drops into the inside of the ear.
- Fold the ear flap back down (where appropriate) and gently massage the ear flap for a few minutes.
- Repeat the process with the other ear.
It is important to cure infections when they first start. If allowed to repeat, chronic dog ear infections can result in a hardening and thickening of the ear canal walls. This means that the canal opening will become narrower and not receive proper ventilation. This, in turn, can lead to more infections.
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I wonder if there is any vaccine that prevents some of these infections, or any research regarding such a vaccine. Ear infection is really painful; I personally can’t tolerate it.
I guess one option would be to use antibiotics, but I really only like to use them when they are absolutely necessary.
Your dog can’t speak so body language is key, pay attention to the actions of your dog and it will be easy to spot a problem.
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@jadeslair
That sounds like great advice. It is very important to pay attention to all of your health concerns.
That’s what’s difficult when your pet gets sick. You only notice them when they’re not as active as usual. For the chronic ear infections, It’s a little harder to detect. Your dog can’t talk at you, and if you don’t have a keen eye, you’ll not notice that something is irritating their ears.
yes,they can not speak,but their body can tell.Pay more attention to your dog,keep eye on them,you ‘ll find problem.
As a veterinarian, I see ear infections all the time – usually a few cases a day.
Your advice about taking your pets to the vet to get examined is excellent. The type of medication required really depends on the type and severity of infection.
As far as prevention goes, I recommend that animals prone to ear infections get their ears cleaned once weekly or fortnightly. This helps to prevent a recurrence of infection.
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Thank you for the complement. Its great to have a veterinarian stop by. If you ever want to do a guest post, please let me know.
We really need to be observant with our pet because sometimes its to late when you noticed that there is something wrong with them. Also it will be better if you take them to the vet, to make sure that they are okay. Me, I always go straight to the vet when I noticed something wrong with my dog.
I agree. Its much better to avoid ear infections if you can.
Prevention is better then cure, cleaning and observing your dogs ears helps to catch the infection as soon as possible. Another reason for ear infections are also “foreign bodies” like grass seed that gets trapped in the ear and causes irritation and infection, SY
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Dirt is another culprit. Our dogs just love dirt and it always seems to get in their ears as a result.
You’re right prevention is definitely better. Its best to have a regular cleaning regimen.
Welcome back SY. : )
The dog ears care is very important, as the ears are a very fragile part of them. I often bath my dogs and clean carefully their ears, to avoid an infection for the dirt.
I have two shelties who also suffered from ear infections very often. After doing a lot of research and talking to the vet, we figured out that their diet is what causes this because of yeast. We switched them over to a prescription dog food which has made a tremendous difference.
We had a similar experience. Once we switched our dogs to a non-allergen dog food, the ear infections went away.
This article is very important.
Our dog had an ear infection that unfortunately progressed beyond the initial stages.
He had had some problems with balance as a puppy, so we thought that what he was displaying was more of the same complaint.
When we took him in for a check though, exactly what you are describing was the case.
He was given an antibiotic and the ear cleared up without hearing loss (we think).
Thanks for the information.
I’m sure it will save many dogs much agony.
Thank you for this informative post, i had never pay attention on ear infections!
It important to pay attention towards pets infection especially ears as it is very delicate part of their body. I completely agree with few of the above above comments that Prevention is much better then cure, But it sad to know there aren’t much online sources available for for pets medication and advice Chemist Direct is one of them offering advice as well as the medication for pets care.
We should care of our pets so that pets remain healthy.
it should be better to clean by hand.
if you think it is too dirty, you can takea rubber glove.
this is not a thing need to do usually, so,it is not necessry to inject vaccine.
acyually ,most dogs can clean by themself.
I really had a bad experience with cleaning the ears of my staffordshire terrier. When I was cleaning his ears I accidentally wounded him at the outer part of left ear. And I was really nervous when I see it bleeding. I used cotton buds when cleaning so I wasn’t expecting it could caused some wound. I rushed him to the veterinary clinic and the veterinarian taught me the right method of cleaning ears which is similarly with your posts. Thank you for sharing it and with that pet owners will be aware on how to clean ears of their dogs.
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Our Lhaso Apso always seemed to be getting ear infections, this is a useful article, thanks!
My dogie has a usual habit of scratching his ear, specifically his right ear. When I visit my vet, he endores some anti allergies, and advice me that I should prevent my dogie to eat some sea foods.
Regularly cleaning the dogs ears have resoveld any problems we had with ear infections.
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@Dog Gifts
That sounds like great advice. We clean our dog’s ears regularly too.
you don’t need a vaccine for ear infections!!! or for most other things. what you need is to get rid of all the corn, wheat, soy, and grains from your dogs diet. these are the main culprit, and and many vets won’t tell you because it means less money in their pockets.
if you want to start eliminating almost all of our current canine and feline problems, you should think about feeding raw.