ear cleaning

[mkj878]

I did not use alcohol at all. I used a 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water mixture. Nowadays I put about a spoonful of it in my pups water as just an additive.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Awesome thank you, I am going to get back on it again. I started using the store bought Avena cleaner and it did nothing to help. How many times did you add it to dogs ears in a day. I have read some people do it 3-4 times a day for the first 4 days

 

[mkj878]

At first I cleaned them daily for about a week, once or twice i did it twice a day because I felt like they were exceptionally dirty, her's were oily and very smelly.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Ok now for the big question. How did you clean them? I have read NOT TO USE Q-tips but then some where else says you have to to get all the yeast out. Some say use a suction, some say just massage and the final out is to massage the ear canel till you hear a squishy sound. I am so lost

 

[mkj878]

Well it was slightly different with the GSD ears as they stand but I found some very large fluffy cotton balls at the dollar store, i'd drench them in the solution and put it down in her ear and massage her ear, you could hear the solution squishing around in there and she'd just moan in enjoyment then I'd get another and repeat if it was really dirty and then I'd do the other side, she'd shake her head and go on about her business once she realized I was finished.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Thank you so much. I have been looking for lrg cotton balls with no luck, but I haven't tried the dollar store. I have huge cotton pads. Thanks again

 

[mkj878]

You're quite welcome

 

[Robtouw]

I give my boy a little plastic container with a spoon of peanut butter in it as a distraction. He is so busy trying to get his tongue down into it, that it makes it easier to get the job done. I wipe his ears out every other day with a baby wipe and sometimes use a little mineral oil on a cotton ball if they are scratched or dry. Mineral oil is what I use on my horses to moisturize and clean their ears and it also acts as a nice repellant.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

We just cleaned his ears and it was horrible again. I really don't know if I did a good job because he now will not let me touch his ears. I took his Kong abduction put peanut butter in it and he still didn't let me get in there for a good clean. Though it did stop him from chewing my husbands hands off. I will try again tonight before he gets his drops that are not working

 

[Robtouw]

I wait to clean ears and clip nails when Cruiser is sleepy. We usually wait until after dinner and play time outdoors and do it right before bed. The pb helps distract. Your approach is a big part of the process. Around 9 Cruiser flops down and wants to go to sleep, I usually will lay on the floor with him and rub his belly and give him a good scratching and once he is nice and relaxed I'll sneak in the pb and clean each ear one at a time. It helps if it is quiet when you are doing it, I've found background noise like tv and radios help add to the tension. You may want to use part of your training time to just rub his ears lightly with your fingers. Do it several times a day and try to make it fun. Give loads of praise and treats but don't do any cleaning when you do it. Make it a game. After a while, he will get used to you handling his ears and will be more receptive to cleaning. Also, you may want to look at what you are using, is it topical or does it go down into the ear canal. If there is alcohol in it, it may sting. There are quite a few cleansers that do not have alcohol that work well. I use a babywipe to clean the outter ear every few days if his ears are visabily dirty, and as I stated sometimes a little mineral oil on the outer ear area if scratched, and avoderm for the inner ear canal but only once a month. It goes in wet but dries quickly and causes the built up gunk to break apart.

I have an appaloosa that I rescued. He was extremely head shy and had been abused alot. When I first got him I could not touch any part of his face or head. He would lunge, bite, kick and throw anything that did. I ended up donning hockey gear and going in his stall while he ate and would rub him during every meal. I of course, ended up with a load of injuries, but now I can do pretty much anything I want with his head,ears and nose. Point is.. I invested time getting him used to having his head and ears handled and it payed off! I have had to do alot of desensitizing with my horses and have applied the practice to my other animals. Takes time but works!

 

[babyjoemurphy]

My approach is good. He lets me rub his ears anytime. But as soon as he sees or smells ear stuff he protests. Even with belly rubs, peanut butter, treats etc. We even tried with a gentle leader on him. I don't want it to become such a horrible thing by me having to hold him with so much force. I am going to call his vet and see if there is another way to do this without drops

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Ok now I am so confused. I decided to call my vet and see if I could bring Murphy in for just a clean. I was informed that even though they seen him 2 weeks ago I might have to pay for a wellness visit ontop of the cleaning and meds again. I said NO WAY! So I tried to call groomers and was informed from all of them that they only do basic cleaning. So my question to you all is whats the difference between a vet tec doing it, and a groomer?

 

[angelbears]

I'm afraid you are going to have to find a way to do it. More than likely, it is going to take a lot more than one good treatment to get this under control and it is something that you may have to deal with periodically through out his life.

As far as ACV I have read both good and bad things about using it for yeast. My homeopathic vet said not to use it for yeast. Yeast thrives in sugar. ACV is fermented which equals sugar. Cut as much sugar as you can out of his diet.

 

[ruthcatrin]

Ok, I totally under stand your preference with home made cleaner, but I think you need something different to get this under controll. Try this: http://www.amazon.com/Pet-King-Enzy...r=1-1&keywords=zymox+otic+with+hydrocortisone its supposed to be applied to dirty ears, infact they specifically tell you NOT to clean the ears while using it. Get the yeast under controll, then get him tolerent of getting his ears cleaned when they don't feel so bad. You likely won't be able to find it local, at least very few people can. I have to order it.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Thank you so much guys. I am just going to go back to the avena cleaner for now and get a repeat on the meds. My daughter said his ears look fantastic when she looked while lying with him. Maybe I am just to critical of my work. I will continue to use the pet grooming wipes to give them a once over with out putting stuff in his ears. I just cant see paying for the vey again, plus the clean, and refill on meds. I wonder if there is other options other then momantomax (ear drops). Maybe there is a medicated wash or pills.
I think the issue was chicken/grains. Once this is gone I will be able to figure it out. He doesn't seemed bothered by his ears at all.

 

[angelbears]

Here are a couple of homemade remedies that I have found. I haven't tried them so I don't know if they work or not.

Heat up some plain green tea and wait for it to cool to a luke-warm
temperature. Get a 3 ml. syringe and fill it to 1 ml of your tea solution.
Syringe the tea right into his ear canal, and then rub the ear for about 10
seconds. Your dog will shake off after you do this. Then get a cotton swab
and gently swab out the inside of the ear. You'll see the yeast and other
glunk come out easily. Do this once/day until you see that cotton swab is
still clean after you swab out the dog's ear.

This isn't homemade but I've seen people praise how well it works. All I know is it is called The 'Blue Power Ear Treatment'

 

[Gunny]

Very informative thread. My wife is a little ocd about clean ears (mine, the cats, and now gunny) so ours has gotten used to her cleaning his ears. She just uses a plain qtip to get all the gunk when he's laying down relaxing and he doesn't mind it at all. I've heard about them getting yeast infections but didn't realize it was something you have to stay on top of to prevent.

This may be a silly question, but how can you tell if they've got a yeast infection?

 

[musicdeb]

Signs of yeast infection in the ear is redness, sometimes little bumps, dog scratches the ear and/or dog leans head to one side because the ear hurts. Most of all, the ears have an odor that I can't explain but it smells really bad.

My vet prescribed otomax and told me to use it at the first sign of redness. He said if the yeast infections continue, which they are decreasing due to raw diet, he will do something. He said consistently using vinegar/water in the ear can cause a chemical imbalance in the ear. There are many for and opposing discussions in the forum about using vinegar in the ears.

 

[babyjoemurphy]

Also a yeast infection has a coffee grind look to it. That's what has been told to me. Murphy has that but no red. He came to us in June and in July I had him to the vet. He does not co-operate for cleaning so its really hard to get it all.
I have read about the green tea but didn't this.k it would be good to clean out Murphys ear. I was going to start using it after this is all done for maintenance. We drink green tea here. I was going to look into tea tree oil as well. I hear it is awesome

 

[musicdeb]

babyjoemurphy, please research about tea tree oil. It's very strong oil. I use it on my face because I have rosacea but I only use it once a week because it's so strong.