Ears?

[kingkong]

Hi my pup seems to get a lot of ear wax.

Is this normal?

My vet has cleaned em twice now with fluid and tissue,and has sold me some cleaner to do the same.

The little devil wriggles like an eel when i try it.

Question is ........... what is average norm for peeps cleaning there dogs ears ???

Once a week?

I have started brushing his (Busters) teeth with doggy toothpaste once a week to get him used to it and he loves that but cleaning ears !
Noooooope

[Knucklesmom]

My baby Knuckles is about 2 1/2 years old, and I clean his ears at least twice a week,usually more often. Here is what my vet recommends: Get a cannister of anitbacterial hand wipes. Open it, take the roll out and squeeze out most of the liquid. Replace the roll in the container, and about 1/2 a bottle of ear cleaning solution (I get this at the vet's office) and use a wipe to clean the ears. I use a sort of circular motion with the wipe wrapped around my little finger - you don't want to push the wax down into the ear canal, and you don't want to get in too deep (virtually impossible with a finger) and cause pain or damage. Knuckles has had several ear infections - just finishing up the twice a day cleanings and the ear medication, so I try to be consistant in cleaning his ears. He doesn't mind his ears being cleaned with the wipes, but man does he HATE having his ears irrigated! He was so good at the vet's when they cleaned his ears with the big ol' cotton tipped swabs. I guess he is just used to it now. (They had all four of the techs in the room in case they needed to hold him down. He just sat there and got them cleaned, then licked the tech's hand when she was done!) Once your pup gets used to having his ears manipulated, he will settle down.

[kingkong]

wow,thats a great idea thanks,ill deffo try that method with the wipes.

[Brooke&Ryan]

We clean out Julius' ears once a week with the cleaning solution. If he goes swimming, then we clean out his ears after he's done.

Julius HATED having his ears cleaned but we just did it no matter what. He doesn't love it now but he realizes it's going to get done so he sits still.


Brooke

[babybluetx23]

Really with Harley all I do it a wet kleenex. I just whipe the leather folds of his ears and just the outside of his ears. I never stick anything IN his ear.

[Squeaky2004]

I clean Squeak's ears once a week with just a soft tissue. I do not stick it in her ear either. Brushing teeth though we do those everyday

[HerculesMomma]

Hercules has had a problem with his ears since I've had him. It's gotten better, but I still have to keep up on it. He hates it when I clean his ears, but I whip out the treats and he knows he's going to get something good once an ear gets done, so he tolerates it. I flush his ears, not just clean them, as that seems to be the only thing to keep his problem at bay. I shoot for once a week or every two weeks depending on if I notice him itch them or not. After I flush the ear with the solution, I clean out the gunk with a cotton ball (don't use a Qtip - it can get too far down in the ear canal and damage the ear drum).

If Hercules goes swimming, I too clean his ears later that night and then a couple of days later to make sure they dry out.

[Judy Chrusch]

In most cases ear problems occur do to food allergies. Before Czar was allergy tested I spent a large amount of money treating him for ear infections, off and on meds and doing his ears daily bc they required it. After finding out his allergies, I haven't touched his ears for about 6 months now, what a pleasure. If it's just to maintain clean ears then bi-weekly should be sufficient but for the most part you shouldn't have to clean them often at all. I've wiped Czar's out with a tissue and got nothing, we're so pleased we found out the cause.

The different things they can test for is if the ear infections are caused by ear mites, yeast, or bacterial infections. Hope this helps.

Judy

[Knucklesmom]

I absolutely agree with the allergies as a cause for ear problems. I think that Knuckles is allergic to something in Missing Link. He loves the stuff, but I noticed that he developed ear problems about 1-2 weeks after I started him on Missing Link. This happened twice, and the vet was, and still is, skeptical that Missing Link could cause this problem, but I am pretty well convinced. No more Missing Link for Knuckles!

[Judy Chrusch]

Czar was on Innova which is a good quality food but with alot of ingredients and it turns out he was allergic to 4 things in it and one is carrots which he loved, especially the baby carrots. So even though these are good foods, an allergy can come from anything. Finding it is the real key .

Judy

[Knucklesmom]

Uh-oh. Knuckles is on Innova dry and canned, and he loves carrots, too. I will have to see if his ears develop problems again. The last time was 6 months ago, and he had cultures done, so he was on specific oral antibiotics and ear drops that time. This last time I started both of my dogs on Missing Link, and Knuckles started with the head shaking about a week or so after. I'll keep my fingers crossed that it was only the Missing Link!

[Canadianrotti]

Our pup LOVES to roll in stuff while we are our for our walks, which means she gets a lot of crud in her ears. I will grab a tissue while sitting with her at night and rub around the outside of her ear to get the crud out, and do a good cleaning with ear cleaner every couple of weeks.

Our older dog has the smallest ears I have ever seen and somehow they are the cleanest. We clean his infrequently as he does a great job himself.

I guess it just depends on your dog.

[Judi W]

Gunk comes from the inner part of the ear and if there are ear problems, a wipe of the outer portion you can reach is not going to be beneficial. You need to squirt the cleaning solution (or a viniger solution) into the ear and massage it so that it covers all the cracks and crevices down in the ear. The dog will then shake the excess out. Normally with an affected ear, it would be done daily or several times a day until the ear becomes healthy and then weekly with your grooming/nail trimming sessions.

[HerculesMomma]

Originally Posted by Judi W

Gunk comes from the inner part of the ear and if there are ear problems, a wipe of the outer portion you can reach is not going to be beneficial. You need to squirt the cleaning solution (or a viniger solution) into the ear and massage it so that it covers all the cracks and crevices down in the ear. The dog will then shake the excess out. Normally with an affected ear, it would be done daily or several times a day until the ear becomes healthy and then weekly with your grooming/nail trimming sessions.

Just to add to that a little.....I didn't know the difference between cleaning and "flushing" the ear. The vet initially showed me the error of my ways where I'm supposed to squirt enough cleaning solution into the ear to make sure when I rub the ear afterwards I should hear a squishing sound and/or the solution overflows out of the ear as I'm squirting it in. Just a tip I thought I'd pass along. If your a novice at ear gunk problems like I was, this isn't something that I think you would instinctually know off the bat.

Also, I suspect Hercules has some kind of allergy problem as his was yeast related, but the vet was reluctant to do an allergy test to find out the source (could be outdoor allergies like pollen too - not just food). I still can't seem to figure out on my own the origin of it (and I was feeding a low allergy food - California Natural) but the ear flushings once a week seems to keep all the evil at bay.