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346 days ago

Sierralynn 67 post(s)

Hi, Sierra's Mom here. I got enlighten by Sierra's doctor today so I thought I'd post this for anyone who is interested. Sierra has been shaking her head for a couple of days, so I went to clean them out and it was rather gross. I was using my finger and some ear cleaning pads. Well, when I saw how gross it was, I called the doctor this morning. She has some (ok quite a bit) of yeast in her one ear, the other is clear. Sierra is a lab and is prone to "allergy ears". Well, I explained to the vet that I was worried about going to far into Sierra's ear and hurting her or pushing it down the canal further. As explained to me, dogs ear canals are in an "L" shape and it is extremely hard to get to the ear drum and hurt it. I was given some liquid ear cleaner and told to soak some cotton with it, place it into the ear fairly deeply and rub. This will loosen any "gunk" in there. Then remove the wet ball and insert a dry one, fairly deeply again and give it a twist, pull it out and follow with a second dry cotton. The other option is to fill the ear canal with the cleaner, rub it, and then use cotton or a q-tip to remove the gunk. For routine maintenance, this should be done about once a week. I was also told that when dogs do alot of hard ear shaking, they can rupture little blood vessels on the inside flap of their ear and this is very painful and they have to be lanced and drained. So for what it's worth, I'm sharing, because I assumed that a dogs ear was similar to a humans with a straighter canal and that something stuck in to far would cause damage and pain.

346 days ago

TinaValant 845 post(s)

EXcellent posting! I would caution against the Qtips, though ~ if the dog jerks or moves, it can be dangerous. Our holistic vet says dogs with floppy ears (think bassett hound) where air does not easily get in there should be cleaned weekly. Prick ears (think husky) every other week. Also, after your dog swims or gets a bath (when water may get in the ear canal) it's a good idea to use an ear cleaner or hydrogen peroxide in a pinch. We use the cotton rounds, one to clean, one to wipe and use fresh ones for each ear. Many ear problems are initiated by food allergies. This is very common, especially with labs and bulldogs.

346 days ago

rachelk 64 post(s)

What should be the main ingredient in the cleanser?? By that I mean the cleanser itself

346 days ago

ShepGrl182 46 post(s)

This is a great posting, I never payed much attention to cleaning my dog's ears until Mutsy about 2 years ago had to have her ear drained because she scratched at it really bad and doing that caused her ear to have a ball of liquid. From that day I learned how important it is to clean their ears and now I do routing cleaning on all of them (every 2 weeks) after bathing them I clean their ears with hydrogen peroxide and I also brush their teeth.

346 days ago

TinaValant 845 post(s)

This is what we use : http://www.trilogyonline.com/Trilogy/Catalog/ProductDetail.aspx?realname=40027805&cat=0&hdr=&Ath=False&ProductID=101051 This cleans, disinfects and leaves a soothing, healthing layer, in case of any scratches. Make sure there is no alcohol (can sting). I would only use hydrogen peroxide in a pinch as the bubbling sound makes them ca-razy!

346 days ago

LindaOffshore 40 post(s)

Have Goldens over the past 15 years you learn real quick about ears. I've been using Nolvasan Otic cleaning solution for years. Your Vet should show you how to clean them. Also once a week I use Huggies wipes just to clean the inside flap of the ear. I also trim some hair from the inside flaps as well. Getting the ears to dry out prevents earmites which cause Gunky Ear. The Nolvansan solution is falso antastic on hotspots. It dries them up almost overnight!

344 days ago

Olie 76 post(s)

We use Epi-Otic. I've only seen at the vet, but it's not prescription or anything. It works good, on cats also. Olie gets itchy ears and we've never diagnosed why, we use Frontline so I don't think it's fleas or ear mites, but he has those floppy ears with lots of hair, so we just try to keep up with cleaning. We found out how important it is because he was scratching so much that he ended up with a hot spot just above his ear (also a common ailment in Goldens). The more he scratched, the worse it got, until we finally had to shave his head to get it to heal. The vet said keeping up with ear cleaning would help prevent this in the future.

341 days ago

nyvettechdog... 16 post(s)

Any liquid ear cleaner can be used...they have powder cleaners too but i never thought this was better then the liquid...id sugest using a cotton puff or gauze to clean ears out as ive seen too many Q-tip related ear injuries and actually a few Q-tip heads got stuck inside the canal that had to be removed. Those dogs had to be sedated and the pieces were removed. When their is too much yeast, wax or an ear infection a dog may shake their head constantly and strach which usually causes a hematoma, ive seen some the size of a softball. They will not go down by themselves and need to be drained by a Vet.

341 days ago

LindaOffshore 40 post(s)

Everyone has such good advise. I'm glad this topic came up. As for hot spots use any ear cleaner with salicytic (not sure of spelling) acid in it. It clears up the spots in a couple of days without a $150.00 vet bill!!

Cleaning the Ears

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346 days ago Sierralynn 67 post(s)	Hi, Sierra's Mom here. I got enlighten by Sierra's doctor today so I thought I'd post this for anyone who is interested. Sierra has been shaking her head for a couple of days, so I went to clean them out and it was rather gross. I was using my finger and some ear cleaning pads. Well, when I saw how gross it was, I called the doctor this morning. She has some (ok quite a bit) of yeast in her one ear, the other is clear. Sierra is a lab and is prone to "allergy ears". Well, I explained to the vet that I was worried about going to far into Sierra's ear and hurting her or pushing it down the canal further. As explained to me, dogs ear canals are in an "L" shape and it is extremely hard to get to the ear drum and hurt it. I was given some liquid ear cleaner and told to soak some cotton with it, place it into the ear fairly deeply and rub. This will loosen any "gunk" in there. Then remove the wet ball and insert a dry one, fairly deeply again and give it a twist, pull it out and follow with a second dry cotton. The other option is to fill the ear canal with the cleaner, rub it, and then use cotton or a q-tip to remove the gunk. For routine maintenance, this should be done about once a week. I was also told that when dogs do alot of hard ear shaking, they can rupture little blood vessels on the inside flap of their ear and this is very painful and they have to be lanced and drained. So for what it's worth, I'm sharing, because I assumed that a dogs ear was similar to a humans with a straighter canal and that something stuck in to far would cause damage and pain.

346 days ago TinaValant 845 post(s)	EXcellent posting! I would caution against the Qtips, though ~ if the dog jerks or moves, it can be dangerous. Our holistic vet says dogs with floppy ears (think bassett hound) where air does not easily get in there should be cleaned weekly. Prick ears (think husky) every other week. Also, after your dog swims or gets a bath (when water may get in the ear canal) it's a good idea to use an ear cleaner or hydrogen peroxide in a pinch. We use the cotton rounds, one to clean, one to wipe and use fresh ones for each ear. Many ear problems are initiated by food allergies. This is very common, especially with labs and bulldogs.


346 days ago rachelk 64 post(s)	What should be the main ingredient in the cleanser?? By that I mean the cleanser itself

346 days ago ShepGrl182 46 post(s)	This is a great posting, I never payed much attention to cleaning my dog's ears until Mutsy about 2 years ago had to have her ear drained because she scratched at it really bad and doing that caused her ear to have a ball of liquid. From that day I learned how important it is to clean their ears and now I do routing cleaning on all of them (every 2 weeks) after bathing them I clean their ears with hydrogen peroxide and I also brush their teeth.

346 days ago TinaValant 845 post(s)	This is what we use : http://www.trilogyonline.com/Trilogy/Catalog/ProductDetail.aspx?realname=40027805&cat=0&hdr=&Ath=False&ProductID=101051 This cleans, disinfects and leaves a soothing, healthing layer, in case of any scratches. Make sure there is no alcohol (can sting). I would only use hydrogen peroxide in a pinch as the bubbling sound makes them ca-razy!


346 days ago LindaOffshore 40 post(s)	Have Goldens over the past 15 years you learn real quick about ears. I've been using Nolvasan Otic cleaning solution for years. Your Vet should show you how to clean them. Also once a week I use Huggies wipes just to clean the inside flap of the ear. I also trim some hair from the inside flaps as well. Getting the ears to dry out prevents earmites which cause Gunky Ear. The Nolvansan solution is falso antastic on hotspots. It dries them up almost overnight!

344 days ago Olie 76 post(s)	We use Epi-Otic. I've only seen at the vet, but it's not prescription or anything. It works good, on cats also. Olie gets itchy ears and we've never diagnosed why, we use Frontline so I don't think it's fleas or ear mites, but he has those floppy ears with lots of hair, so we just try to keep up with cleaning. We found out how important it is because he was scratching so much that he ended up with a hot spot just above his ear (also a common ailment in Goldens). The more he scratched, the worse it got, until we finally had to shave his head to get it to heal. The vet said keeping up with ear cleaning would help prevent this in the future.

341 days ago nyvettechdog... 16 post(s)	Any liquid ear cleaner can be used...they have powder cleaners too but i never thought this was better then the liquid...id sugest using a cotton puff or gauze to clean ears out as ive seen too many Q-tip related ear injuries and actually a few Q-tip heads got stuck inside the canal that had to be removed. Those dogs had to be sedated and the pieces were removed. When their is too much yeast, wax or an ear infection a dog may shake their head constantly and strach which usually causes a hematoma, ive seen some the size of a softball. They will not go down by themselves and need to be drained by a Vet.

341 days ago LindaOffshore 40 post(s)	Everyone has such good advise. I'm glad this topic came up. As for hot spots use any ear cleaner with salicytic (not sure of spelling) acid in it. It clears up the spots in a couple of days without a $150.00 vet bill!!