ear mites

[Daytek]

Does anyone know of a natural way to get rid of ear mites? My rottweiler/shepard mix is about 9 months old(I think). She was dropped off on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago. She's great though, hard to believe someone wanted to get rid of her.
Thanks
Don

[Beckysmom]

Buy the book by author last name: Pitcairn on Natural Animal Health (the name is exact and spelled right, the title probably not). It has recipes for oils etc. that you can use. My cat had ear mites when he first adopted me, and the Pitcairn recipes worked as fast as the standard drugs. (was something like olive oil with rosemary as I recall)

you can also call his office if he is still practicing (it sounded like he might be about to retire last time I called) and buy some stronger herbals for various things. I have used their dewormers and various others with great results. He is local to me, but is nationally known and has trained a lot of other natural and holistic DVM's in the country.

If you need more on the book title, or phone number of office, or even are desparate for an ear mite recipe (the book has more than one) let me know and I will try to look it up exactly, copy it down for you etc.

[Anne]

Are you sure they are eat mites? Have you had a swab taken from her ears?
My girl has just recovered from ear problems but it was yeast/fungus/bacteria, not mites.

[Daytek]

Thanks guys, I want to try a home remedy but I am afraid I can't wait to try and get that going. She was really bad last night, shaking and scratching. I'm not sure if its mites or not but from what I have been reading it seems to be. I am going to call a vet today and see what they can do for her. Once I get this cleared up however, I am going to look into natural preventitive remedies so this doesn't happen again!
Thanks again
Don

[Judy Chrusch]

Hi Don, the first thing I'd do is take her to the vets, have them checked then begin treatment but they must be cleaned out thoroughly before anything,it could be mites, an infection, you just don't know. You don't want to put stuff in and find out she has a bad infection that needs attention. After all that you can maintain them on a regular basis with vinegar and water and even an ocassion couple drops of almond or olive oil. Oil smothers mites:D .

A book I have which I find very helpful is.... Natural Healing for dogs and cats. It's a great book. Hope this helps and I hope your girl feels better soon but a vet visit is a must.

Judy

[Daytek]

Well, I brought her to the vet. They said its some sort of bacterial infection, not mites. They sold me some drops and in one day there is a big difference. Not nearly as much scratching or shaking, thankfully. I got her weighed, she's 51 pounds and about 10 months old. I think she has gained between 5 and 10 lbs in the past couple of weeks! Anyway, thanks for all the advice everyone, I appreciate it.

[Beckysmom]

Always make sure you know what it is you are treating before you treat. I am glad that others caught that!

the book mentioned by Judy Chrusch and the one I refer to are likely same book: Dr. Pitcairs's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Richard H Pitcairn, DVM, and Susan Hubble Pitcairn.

The title is misleading: it is very good, but hardly complete.

Also get: Martin Goldstein's book on natural healing for dogs.

Also highly recommend: Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook by James Giffin MD and Liisa D. Carlson DVM (traditional but has good pictures of what various problems look like. Still, it did not mention canine acne, when I was trying to figure out what was going on with my dog's chin, and the people replying on Vet Corner here called that one correctly)

I think if you buy books via link from home page here over to Amazon it helps support this site. ????

If your dog tends toward bacterial problems in ears, good ear hygeine, drying ears after swimming etc. may help. Also excellent over all health and diet. I have been told NOT to use ear drying creams, I forget why, but they were supposed to do something bad.

[pbach]

Originally posted by Daytek
... They said its some sort of bacterial infection, not mites.

My Nikki just finished a 2 week supply of antibiotics; she also, had an antibiotic shot and ear drops 2x a day.

Originally I thought it was mites (not really sure what they look like) took her to the vet and it was a very bad bacterial infection. It's like it appeared over night. Saturday night her ears were fine (smelled/looked good) and by Sunday morning it was yuck:(

[Beckysmom]

My recollection of mites in cat's ears was that you could actually see the mites as little dark specks. Nor did it smell, but did itch the cat.

Fungus/bacteria tends more to smell, and there is less to see crawling around the ear, but a cotton ball may come up with stuff that looks rather yucky. May hurt as ear swells in addition to itching. What I am thinking of here is the dog equiv to "swimmer's ear"--there are no doubt lots of other bacterial infections of ears possible.

Moist humid weather seems to contribute. Keeping ears dry and clean helps. Apple cider vinegar in water is a nice cleaner once the ears are better.

[pbach]

Originally posted by Beckysmom
Apple cider vinegar in water is a nice cleaner once the ears are better.

How do you get it in the ear. Would you soak a cotton ball in the stuff and then let it rest in the ear? I like the idea of using this to clean their ears out.

Patty

[Judy Chrusch]

Patty you can put solution in alittle plastic bottle and squeeze it in the ear canal and I buy rolled cotton, take a big wad, soak it with the solution and put it down in the ear. Of course you use a big enough piece so it doesn't get lost down in the canal. After placing the soaked cotton in the ear you then massage the ear, wipe out and repeat if needed. You can also use 4x4's to wipe out. Hope this helps:) .

Judy

[Beckysmom]

Or, another method--also using a bottle with a squeeze tip, I squeeze some in and let the dog shake it out. Then I use a dry cotton ball (also making sure it doesn't get stuck in canal) to dry the ears. Sometimes with a tiny bit of alcohol on the cotton to also help in drying procedure.

If there is a wax build up problem, some food grade oil before the vinegar can help to loosen the wax, and then the vinegar and water with dog shaking can help get it all out.

incidentally make sure anything used is warmed in your hands to a nice body temp. first. You don't want either hot or cold down ear which can both hurt and cause problems. And don't stick swabs or bottle tips into the canal as they can go too far and puncture the drum.

[moondog]

I always warm the ear wash, too. I tried soaking a piece of rolled cotton and putting that in the ear last time I cleaned Luna's ears and it worked really, really well. :)

I have used q-tips to clean the gunk out when Luna was having ear problems and used a mini maglite so I could see what I was doing. The ear canal makes an L-turn at the base to the ear drum. I think it would be pretty hard to puncture the ear drum as long as a q-tip or bottle tip was inserted straight down into the ear and not at an angle. When using a q-tip, I always wipe gently away from the area where the ear canal turns in towards the head.

[Judy Chrusch]

moondog, I warm the solution too and I find it very affective to use the rolled cotton as you do bc you can get way down and you know if you use a big enough piece it won't get stuck or go down the canal. I'd be alittle uneasy using Q-tips, my sister used a no name Q-tip and the one end fell off into her ear and she had to have it removed , so I think it's best to stay away from Q-tips alltogether.

Judy

[Beckysmom]

If you know what you are doing, and if dog is very mellow, you could probably use Q-tip type swabs. But if dog is at all jumpy or human is novice, I'd for sure avoid it. In addition to problem mentioned above, if the swab stick is plastic or cardboard it can bend and make it around that curve. If wood it can break, esp if dog suddenly moves. In general there is no reason to go down so deep as a swab is needed to do, and a ball of cotton (or cotton wrapped tightly around a finger) will get the parts needed to be gotten just fine.

There is a "rule" (sort of thing a grandmother might say?) for humans of "put nothing in your ear that is smaller than your elbow. Too extreme, but point is there can be injury.