dog ear infections

Did they swim?

Yeah if they did go for a swim, you probably could flush out their ears with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water the next time you take them for a swim. Should check with a vet to see if what proper mixture or alternative liquid you could use postswim time to prevent further infections.

no, no swimming. they just stayed in the house. The carpets have been clean and no signs of fleas and the vet didn't see any signs of ear mites...

Go to vet. Vet identify organisms in ear. Vet look at dog skin. Vet maybe discuss with you common occurence of environmental allergies in Labrador retriever breed. Vet prescribe appropriate medications. Vet recommend good ear cleaner for home use.

As Patiodog said - get thee to a vet. Untreated ear infections can lead to the dog going deaf. The medicine is cheap. Our bulldog sometimes gets ear infections and I recall a bottle of the solution cost about $12 and it's easy to apply.

pdawg - they've already been to the vet (it's in the post before yours).

Sounds like the vet didn't give the advice you're suggesting the vet might - which is why the poster came here with a question.

Dogs, with ears like a Lab's, are succesptible to such infections. I am not a vet and I don't know this for certain but I think it has to do with the internal construction of their "flappy" ears (another unintended consequence of imposed breeding).

Note canine ancestors like the wolf and fox have ears that stand up straight from their heads.

There is an ointment you can get from your Vet (Otiox I think its called) that will clear the infection up if you stick to the regimen long enough.

You can help prevent future infections by regularly clearning your dog's ears with q-tips dipped in warm salt water or vinegar. Obviously be gentle and don't stick the q-tip all the way up the canal.

My bad. Read the post wrong. Where I live and work, 999 times out of 1000 a dog with ear problems will not have ear mites -- I read that bit as being part of carpets cleaned and no signs of fleas. Not knowing what has or has not been done or looked at, all I can offer is that I wouldn't recommend owning labs and going to a veterinarian who doesn't pay real attention to dermatologic problems, which includes bad ears...

MarVista has a pretty good presentation for the owner on the subject (as they frequently do):

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_ear_infections.html


I can't say I recommend sticking swabs into dogs' (or cats', or rabbits') ears. The anatomy of the ear canal makes cleaning by this method ineffective, and and the swabs can cause trauma which lead to increased inflammation and increased opportunity for secondary infection.

Good site

I've used the q-tip method for years with good effect and no harm to my dogs.

You need to be gentle and focused.

But you advice is not unreasonable, as some may be hamfisted with their approach.

In a healthy ear, you're probably not going to do any harm (though you are likely to pack some of the wax down into the horizontal ear canal rather than remove it). In an infected ear, it doesn't take much to start tearing tissue.

Perhaps, but my experience tells me it's a good way to go.

So long as it works for you. It's just something I do for a living.

Which sounds snarky, but it ain't meant to be. Just that, if I have to choose a blanket recommendation regarding dog and cat ears, it's to forego the Q-tips, because they can make a bad ear fractionally worse. And even on an anesthetized animal, I haven't found them especially useful for getting the wax that's packed deep in the ear canal. Some mineral oil and a bulb syringe, on the other hand, can work wonders (or get you bitten).