Ear Cleaning

[Guest hcsmom]

How is the proper way to clan inside my dog's ears what products are better than other's or does it matter? Also How often should I do this?

 

Also my newest dog Peatie loves to chew I have a cabbage patch kid missing a section of her face now to prove it sooo... what chewies are safe for him and would last more than a few minutes. We do have a kong that he likes for when we go out. Thanks

[Guest SYMBASMOMMY]

Congratulations on your new greyhound!!!

 

I was never really shown or told how to clean Symba's ears....so I pretty much did it on my own.....but it does the trick....I get a soft tissue and while he is standing up, I pick up his ear and gently clean just the outside parts...never dig deep in or use a Q tip.....I usually clean his ears at least 3 times a week....he actually loves it.....

 

If Peatie seems to shake his head a lot....he may have a lot of wax down deep inside...in that case, refer to a care and handling of greyhound book to see how to handle this.........

 

Try your local Target for some AKC stuffies...such as the duck, hedgehog, squirrels, etc........in the pet section of course...we have found these are Symba proof and he loves the noises they make!!!

 

Best wishes to you and Peatie!

[Guest Christina]

I am at work now so I can't tell you the brand, but I use this liquid ear cleaner that smells minty fresh... red and yellow bottle... I just squirt it in, use the flap of his ear as a cover, and massage his ear from the outside (which always gets a satisfied groan in return), then he shakes his head and wax goes a-flying! Obviously I do it outside, because there is nothing grosser than doggy-wax on the bathroom walls. Then I dry his ears by putting a wad of kleenex in his ear (not down in it, just under the flap where the funny-looking protrusions are) and gently rubbing it around, it helps to remove some more wax as well.

The stuff I use has eucalyptus oil, glycerin, alcohol, and some other stuff, it smell so nice and I'm sure it feels refreshing to him too. Its the second step of a three-step system, but I don't use steps one and three as this works great on its own.

 

[Guest hcsmom]

Wanted to add that I have 2 greys we bought several stuffies in anticipation when we adopted Kay last year, and she pretty much ignors them. Peatie will play with them some but seems to want to have something hard to chew on, the face of the cabbage patch got the chewing not the soft body, then yesterday my daughter left her ameican girl doll down and he went for that luckily I got it in time and there was no damage. I did give him a rawhide bone in desperation and he loved it but it was gone in less than 24 hrs and I know that they are not supposed to be the safest of options, I had thought I'd go get him a nylabone untill I recently read they can be hazardous too. I have given him a turkey neck and he and my girl both love those if I can find them but again they are gone pretty quickly. I am wondering about a marrow bone? If that is ok then where do I find one? Also the dogs have neither one shown any kind of food aggression with each other but how would that change if they have a tasty chew bone, would they need to be kept seperated? Thanks

[Guest spider9174]

our greyhound group sells some stuffies...my gable LOVES them he has the big bone.

www.greyhoundsonly.com

click enter then click "online store" from the menu on the left. they are pretty well constructed.

 

also try www.kvvet.com their prices are really good for the same stuffies that are at the pet stores. free shipping if you order more than $50 worth of stuff...which isn't that hard to do!

 

get a good sewing kit if your guy "likes" his stuffies...a lot. some of the toys on the market aren't as well constructed as others. i have a couple that i've sewn back together because they are still good, just with a whole. so, now gable has a three legged piggie...and a no head penguin after some minor repairs. that pig will be a bi-ped soon.

[Guest LovesDoggies]

I am at work now so I can't tell you the brand, but I use this liquid ear cleaner that smells minty fresh... red and yellow bottle... I just squirt it in, use the flap of his ear as a cover, and massage his ear from the outside (which always gets a satisfied groan in return), then he shakes his head and wax goes a-flying! Obviously I do it outside, because there is nothing grosser than doggy-wax on the bathroom walls. Then I dry his ears by putting a wad of kleenex in his ear (not down in it, just under the flap where the funny-looking protrusions are) and gently rubbing it around, it helps to remove some more wax as well.

The stuff I use has eucalyptus oil, glycerin, alcohol, and some other stuff, it smell so nice and I'm sure it feels refreshing to him too. Its the second step of a three-step system, but I don't use steps one and three as this works great on its own.

 

Christina,

 

If you remember later today, can you please update this post with the name of the product? This sounds like a cleaner I'd like to try. Thanks!

[Guest ArtysPeople]

How is the proper way to clan inside my dog's ears what products are better than other's or does it matter? Also How often should I do this?

 

Arty had a yeast infection in one of his ears the first time he went to the vet (a week or so after we got him), so she prescribed an ear cleaning solution (in addition to medication) and showed me how to use it. After the infection was cleared up, the instructions were to clean his ears every week, but I find that there isn't a lot to clean out every week, so bi-weekly seems to be working fine.

 

I also don't have the name of the solution handy, but it came from the vet, has no alcohol in it (which could irritate the canals), and has almost no scent except for a mild "medicine" smell. I think it cost about $10 for an 8 oz bottle.

 

The key thing to understand is that the dog's ear canal makes almost a 90 degree angle before it gets near the ear drum. Down in this bend is where a lot of debris can collect and possibly cause infections, hence the need to clean them. According to what the vet told me, since there's this bend in the ear canal, it's perfectly safe to use a swab as deep down as you can see when you look into the dog's ear, with no fear of damaging the ear drum since it's around the bend (just don't go trying to go past the bend and you're fine).

 

I found a diagram of the ear online here.

 

So, how the Vet taught me to do it (disclaimer: I'm not a vet myself, and this is just what I was told, duh ):

 

Squirt enough of the solution into one of his ears so that you pretty much fill it up, then externally massage the ear canal against his skull for about 20 seconds (you can feel it if you apply a bit of pressure to different areas right under the ear).

 

Then let go of his head, and he'll naturally shake it around a lot to get the liquid out. This will also cause a lot of the gunk there might be in his ears to fly out toward the open end, where you can clean it out. (You'll probably want to duck and cover for this part of the procedure.)

 

Then take a swab and clean out any visible gunk (it's usually a dark orange/brown color for Arty -- don't know about other dogs). I also like to take a cotton ball and just wipe the excess liquid from around his outer ears as well.

 

That's it! Whole procedure takes less than a minute per side. Arty doesn't like it, but he tolerates it, and lets me do it without problems.

 

Good luck!

Edited September 11, 2007 by ArtysPeople

[Guest ArtysPeople]

I did give him a rawhide bone in desperation and he loved it but it was gone in less than 24 hrs and I know that they are not supposed to be the safest of options

 

I was told once by a dog trainer that there are two kinds of rawhide chews on the market, one that is safe and one that is potentially dangerous. The dangerous ones are the ones that are made of large, rolled pieces of rawhide, which can swell internally and cause choking, blockages, etc. The rawhide chews that look like they're made of sawdust, usually formed into sticks, are supposed to be OK, though, since they're made of smaller pieces and so don't have this problem. I don't think they last as long, though, which is why people still like the other types.

 

Kong makes toys specifically for "strong chewers" or something like that -- they're black, instead of the usual red color. You might try one of those for him, especially if he liked chewing on a plastic doll.

[Guest sorenkkg]

How is the proper way to clan inside my dog's ears what products are better than other's or does it matter? Also How often should I do this?

 

Arty had a yeast infection in one of his ears the first time he went to the vet (a week or so after we got him), so she prescribed an ear cleaning solution (in addition to medication) and showed me how to use it. After the infection was cleared up, the instructions were to clean his ears every week, but I find that there isn't a lot to clean out every week, so bi-weekly seems to be working fine.

 

I also don't have the name of the solution handy, but it came from the vet, has no alcohol in it (which could irritate the canals), and has almost no scent except for a mild "medicine" smell. I think it cost about $10 for an 8 oz bottle.

 

The key thing to understand is that the dog's ear canal makes almost a 90 degree angle before it gets near the ear drum. Down in this bend is where a lot of debris can collect and possibly cause infections, hence the need to clean them. According to what the vet told me, since there's this bend in the ear canal, it's perfectly safe to use a swab as deep down as you can see when you look into the dog's ear, with no fear of damaging the ear drum since it's around the bend (just don't go trying to go past the bend and you're fine).

 

I found a diagram of the ear online here.

 

So, how the Vet taught me to do it (disclaimer: I'm not a vet myself, and this is just what I was told, duh ):

 

Squirt enough of the solution into one of his ears so that you pretty much fill it up, then externally massage the ear canal against his skull for about 20 seconds (you can feel it if you apply a bit of pressure to different areas right under the ear).

 

Then let go of his head, and he'll naturally shake it around a lot to get the liquid out. This will also cause a lot of the gunk there might be in his ears to fly out toward the open end, where you can clean it out. (You'll probably want to duck and cover for this part of the procedure.)

 

Then take a swab and clean out any visible gunk (it's usually a dark orange/brown color for Arty -- don't know about other dogs). I also like to take a cotton ball and just wipe the excess liquid from around his outer ears as well.

 

That's it! Whole procedure takes less than a minute per side. Arty doesn't like it, but he tolerates it, and lets me do it without problems.

 

Good luck!

 

Yes-- just about ditto to all of that-- when we first got Haka, no one said anything about ears so we didn't do anything and then he got a wicked bad infection-- he wound up on prednisone for a few days before we could even put anything in his ears! (surolan is what we got, worked great).

 

Sigh.

 

Yes-- so now we use a preventative bi-weekly (it was weekly for a long time, and we backed off recently), and then 1x or 2x a month we also do a real cleaning with the liquid and the shaking and the whole bit... He's got a lot of stuff generally, but Aleeya's ears have very little stuff...

 

You know it's an infection (yeast I think, definitely something) if the ears start to smell-- to me they smell like sweaty feet. The ears normally shouldn't smell like anything

 

Another tip to getting the stuff in is to soak cotton balls in your solution, then put the ball JUST at the top of the ear hole-- don't push it way in there b/c you can't get it out!

Then rub the ear, and the liquid drips out of the cotton ball and into the ear, then they shake (and sometimes I don't get the cotton out and it goes flying).

 

Use a swab or cotton pad just in the area you can see-- don't go digging, their ears are so sensitive-- and the stuff should've been flung from deep in the ear to where you can get to it.. wipe it away, and you're good to go.

 

the main lesson here-- an ounce of prevention is worth more than it's weight in gold in avoiding pain and suffering and vet bills

 

re: toys- I like ones where I can easily replace the squeeker-- there's a brand, Dr. Noys (noise, ha ha) that makes different sizes, and they all velcro open with a pouch for the squeeker, so their easy to replace, and remove to wash... they look like the AKC ones too-- we've got a duck and a squirrel from them.

 

I love the Booda toys, and the Good Cuz balls with feet.

 

Haka loves this one in red, even now that it doesn't squeak-- we have a few different shapes and sizes (medium and large, don't get the small ones)

 

The kongs are great.

 

We stay away from stuff that seem flimsy, that has things hanging off of it (think of what you'd get for a baby and avoid pieces that could come off and be choking hazards).

 

Our dogs also really like hedgehogs-- any brand, any color-- it's weird but they all really like hedgehogs

[Guest IGmom4now]

I like to use witch hazel on all my gangs' ears. I doesn't dry and sting like alcohol, adds some lube without being goopy. Nobody minds it, minimal shaking, cool and refreshing... Vet says she likes witch hazel too, for the same reasons.

[ahicks51]

Our vet recommended 1:4 vinegar in water solution. I used to use this as a kid to ward off ear infections, but never heard of it being used with dogs. It sounds a bit harsh, really.