An Easy Way to Check for Healthy Ears
Checking for healthy ears is a good practice. A periodic cleaning with a mild solution is fine. A weekly cleaning can over dry the skin and alter the ear cleaning system that nature provided. Instead check the health of your Doodle’s ears by stroking them. If your dood shows signs of discomfort such as, crouching, pulling away, or yelping – a closer inspection is definitely warranted. If he leans into the ear massage, rolls his eyes, and moans – he’s loving it. My job, as assistant groomer, is to massage the poodle’s ears while their feet are being clipped. If their ears are healthy, they ignore the pedicure.
A sniff will also reveal a change in his ear health – it’s not my preferred test, but a change in odor will alter you to a problem in the early stages. Signs of problems are discharge, a bad odor, ear scratching, head shaking, and discharge. When in question, I dampen a cotton ball with a small amount of ear cleaning solution and gently swab. If I notice any brownish debris, I know it’s time to really clean and medicate their ears.
Prior to diagnosing Winston’s food allergies, I mistook the smell from his infected ears as a sign that he needed a bath. However, during his bath, I found that he had a significant amount of debris in his ears.
Quite often gunky ears that have a vinegar type odor and reddish brown discharge are due to a food allergy. When this happened with Winston, I switched his food to a grain free food and gave his ears a thorough cleaning to clean out the large amount of debris. With his head held down and his ear pulled up, I poured cleaner into his ear until it was full. I then massaged the base of his ear – really getting the gunk loosened. Then I lifted his nose and stretched out his ear to open it up and let the liquid drain out. Once the ears were clean and his diet changed, the ear infections stayed away. We had a recent flare up and I discovered that a treat he was eating with more frequency was the probable cause. I switched to a different chew, cleaned his ears, and so far so good.
Allergies are the number one cause of ear infections in dogs. It’s a misconception that dogs with floppy ears are more prone to ear infections than dogs with standing ears. However, the floppy ears can lead to trapping moisture and delaying the healing process. To reduce the number of vet visits for ear problems, keep your doodle’s ears dry. Bacteria and yeast thrive in a warm moist environment, Keep this in mind when your doodle goes for a swim or gets a bath, drying his ears will help keep them healthy.