Hey Dog Lovers,
Today we talk about how to clean your pet’s ears. This is actually one thing that Aussie actually lets me do and she actually enjoys it.
Supplies:
- Safe and effective ear cleaner (some dry out the ear more which causes more damage)
- Vetoquinol’s Ear Cleansing Solution
- Virbac’s Epi-Otic Ear Cleaner
- Something soft and absorbent to remove the dislodged debris and excess ear cleaner
- Cotton balls, gauze squares, tissues
- DO NOT USE Q-tips as they can cause more damage.
- An assistant and lots of treats
- Usually if they have inflamed or painful ears
- Use treats and encouraging tones to help them through it
- A room or outdoor environment that can get dirty
Steps to Clean Ears:
- Hold your pets ear flap open with one hand
- Use the other hand and invert the ear cleaner bottle and gently place the dispensing tip of the bottle just into the opening of your pets ear
- Gently squeeze enough cleaner into the ear until you see liquid at the ear canal opening
- Keeping the ear flap open, put down the bottle of cleaner and use your newly freed up hand to massage the base of your pets ear (10-15 seconds)
- Keeping the ear flap help up, grab your cotton ball and stick it into the ear with it wrapped around your finger and gently wipe up as much of the cleaner as possible.
- Repeat the above steps as many times as needed to get the cleaner and debris out
- Stand back as your pet will want to shake their head
- Release the ear flap
- Repeat on this ear as necessary
- Move on the next ear and repeat the same process
Not all problems are caused by bacterial or yeast infections and even those that are often have an underlying problem. Predisposing problems include: environmental allergies, food hypersensitivity, an ear tumor or polyp, a stuck grass seed or other foreign body, a mite infestation, and a host of other possibilities.
If your pet has irritated, red or painful ears it is always best to take them to a vet before doing any self care as you can make it worse.
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