If you have a floppy-eared dog that loves to swim and play in the water, you may have had to deal with your dog getting an ear infection due to excessive moisture getting trapped in the ear. Or perhaps you have a smaller dog that loves to run and romp through the tall grasses in the meadows, you may have had to deal with an ear infection due to an embedded foreign body like a grass awn. If you are the owner of a larger, pointy eared dog who has just never shown any signs of an ear infection, count your blessings.
If you take a minute to study the image above with a diagram of the dog's ear canal anatomy it may become much more apparent just how easy it is for water, seeds, etc. to to make their way into your dog's ear canal. It is a surprise that more things don't end up deep in your dog's ear, given its L shape with the vertical canal making a sharp turn leading into the horizontal canal before the ear drum and middle ear. You can also see, that if something makes its way down into the ear it can be challenging for it to get back out on its own or by the power of your dog. This diagram may also help you understand some of the less obvious symptoms that your dog might be suffering from an ear infection when you ponder where the ear canal extends inside your dog's head beyond just the cute fuzzy ear that you can see on the outside.
What causes ear infections?
Once an ear is excessively moist or inflamed it is easy for an overgrowth of bacteria or yeast to occur and cause an infection.
Any of the following could be the initial trigger for a bacteria or yeast overgrowth leading to ear infection:
Foreign bodies in the ear canal (i.e. grass awns or seeds, pollen, etc)
Ear mites
Excessive moisture from swimming or bathing
Allergies (to foods or environment)
Endocrine or autoimmune issues
How do you know if your dog might be dealing with an ear infection?
Ear infections can be obvious at times, but other times the cause of your dog's symptom may have you scratching your head!
Some of the most obvious symptoms of a possible ear infection include:
Head tilting or frequent head shaking or holding their ear in a strange position
Scratching at or rubbing the ear on things
Abnormal odor or discharge from ears
Redness, scabs, swelling, heat, inflammation or pain around ear (can be hard to see under dog fur)
Some of the less obvious symptoms include:
Pain near the jaw or reluctance to open the mouth or chew (look at the diagram to see just how close the ear canal is to your dog's jaw and this makes sense!)
Loss of balance or hearing
If your dog's body is fighting infection, they may have a fever. Try taking their temperature and see if it is normal (100-102F) or running high.
What should I do if I suspect my dog has an ear infection?
DO NOT wait to contact your veterinarian. Get your dog in so that the vet can run the appropriate tests to help you narrow down the cause and start the right treatment. If your dog gets recurring ear infections, make sure your vet is aware, as allergies might be the underlying issue. Just trying to clean your dog's ears at home if they have allergies causing ear infections is NOT going to get to the root of the problem and fix it. Your vet can help.
How can I prevent an ear infection from recurring?
If your vet determines that an embedded grass awn or seed was the cause of the infection and is able to surgically remove it, you may want to pay close attention to grooming your dog after outings in tall grasses or meadows to brush out or remove seeds before they get embedded.
If your vet determines that, due to your dog's love of swimming, regular bathing or cute, floppy ears, excessive moisture is the cause of infection, they may recommend that you regularly clean and dry your dog's ears after they get wet.
Please remember that Buddy outings will frequently expose your dog to several of these environmental risk factors and you should take the time to groom your dog as needed after they get home to reduce their risk of recurring infections.
If your vet determines food or environmental allergies are the cause they may recommend a change in diet or limiting exposure to particular environmental allergens.
How do I clean my dog's ears?
If your vet recommends that you regularly clean your dog's ears with a solution to reduce the risk of infection here are a few tips on how to do it as stress free as possible for you and your dog.
A few additional suggestions:
The reason you need to make sure you do not touch the tip of the bottle to your dog's ear is that you don't want to contaminate it with any yeast, fungus, or bacteria in the ear.
If your dog is not tolerating the liquid directly in their ear you can try:
warming the bottle next to your body for a few minutes to make sure the liquid is not cold going into their ear
saturating gauze or a cotton ball with the liquid, putting that in the ear to massage and clean the canal, then discarding the used gauze or cotton ball (use fresh gauze for each ear to eliminate the chance for spreading contaminants from one ear to the other)
have your dog sit in your lap with their back to you or with their back in a corner so they cannot squirm around or back away as you clean their ears
Hopefully this helps you recognize, care for and, reduce the risk of recurring ear infections for your dog. Remember that if an ear issues are new for your dog it is important to take them to a veterinarian to help properly diagnose and treat the underlying cause.
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