Tips to Care For Your Dog’s Ears

It is important that you are aware of the proper tips to care for your dog’s ears. A dog’s hearing ability is very important because it serves as an warning signal for them if something is out of the ordinary, such as a stranger approaching the house.

Their ability to hear can be compromised by possible infections. Ear infections may occur in your dog, especially if he is a senior dog or simply a dog that likes to swim (just as human swimmers are more prone to ear infections and damage). Dogs that live in an environment full of other dogs (such as shelters) can have the risk of getting an ear infection as well.  Also, dogs with big, floppy ears that flop down over the ear canal, or those that have excessive hair growth inside their ears are prone to infections and damage.

When your dog experiences ear canal inflammation (a.k.a. otitis externa), it is usually caused by a disruption in his immune system, having too much ear hair, some allergies, deep ear skin folds, or even hypothyroidism. Symptoms of this type of infection include a foul-smelling discharge coming out of your dog’s ear, and your dog may scratch his ears from time to time and shake his head. If it’s bad enough, he may scratch and shake almost constantly.

Tips to Care For Your Dog’s Ears

To prevent these problems from occurring in your dog’s ears, we must know the right ways to keep them from happening. A broad-spectrum ear flush is a good product for keeping your dog’s ears clean from wax build up eventually leading to ear infections. If you are going to shop for dog ear care products on the market, make sure to choose products that are non-alcoholic and do not contain many chemicals that can be possible irritants that can harm your dog.

There are several over-the-counter (OTC) products that work well. Products that contain Ketoconazole, Hyrdocortisone, Boric Acid and Acetic Acid can help prevent ear infections and even treat ear infections.

Ketoconazole prevents fungi from growing in your dog’s ears, especially yeast infections.

Hydrocortisone can soothe your dog’s ears and stop any itching, as it is an anti-inflammatory, anti-itch medicine and also relieves ear swelling.

Boric Acid is a good medicine if your dog is a frequent swimmer, and prevents swimming-related bacterial ear infections.

And finally, Acetic Acid kills the yeast that can potentially cause infections in the ears.

However, if your dog suffers a chronic ear disease that the above items don’t help, there is no need to worry. Antibiotics and anti-infective methods are still available through your veterinarian. The job of those medicines is to simply clean your dog’s ears and free them from unwanted particles and harmful parasites like fungi, bacteria, viruses and of course, yeast. Once clean, treating your dog’s ears with the previously mentioned OTC medicines should keep them trouble-free.

Ticks and mites can also affect your dog’s ears, and they can almost drive your dog mad. For that, Pyrethrin products are the key to eliminating these parasites, and they usually contain aloe vera which soothes your dog’s ear, and helps in preventing further wax buildup.

A very important tip: if your dog lives with other dogs, every dog should be treated to eliminate recurrence of the problem.

Aside from ear care products, here are a number of other tips to care for your dog’s ears:

• Remove excess hair growing inside your dog’s ears.
• Use ear cleaners regularly to flush out your dog’s ears. Additionally, these cleaners should be acid based.
• Never use cotton swabs because they can cause ear irritation.
• Stay away from alcoholic products.

Do you know of other tips to care for your dog’s ears? Please share them with others below.