I started out cleaning Tanka's ears with alcohol, and that was bad. They got red. So I got a non-alcohol cleaner at the vets's office for sensitive ears. They still make his ears red. The other day I just wiped them out with aloe gel. That seemed to work ok. Clean ears, visually, and no redness and unhappy dog. Any ideas on what to use when I need to clean the canal? Or when he gets water in his ears? If I am using aloe to keep the ears clean, how often do I NEED to clean the canal that I can't do with the aloe?

Hi, Julie,

What are you seeing that's triggering this kind of cleaning?

I don't introduce moisture to a clear healthy functioning ear. "Clean the canal" is a little scary to read.

The healthy canal pushes whatever is in it outward.

Or were you seeing debris? What kind? If it's simple soft golden-brown or brown wax in a healthy un-inflamed ear, I would not use anything but maybe a soft cloth to wipe it towards the ear flap.

If you are seeing coffee grounds, pus, gray slime, etc., that's more than a home-cleaning problem.

JMO!


How is he getting water in his ears? Swimming?

When I say cleaning the canal, I mean using the ear clenaing solution from the vets office that is poured directly into the ear, so it goes into the canal also, not ever sticking anything in it.

His ears actually look good, just the normal ear like you described. I have been wiping it out of the ear flap, but felt like i should be doing more.

he has only gotten water in his ear a couple times, during a bath when his head smelled a little skunky where he had stuck it where a skunk had sprayed. I tried to put cotton in them but that did not work. SO I felt like i needed to get the water dried up inside the ear. Not soemthing that happens regualrly. GEnerally I don't "bath" his head, but it needed it at that time. generally I don't bath him at all, every now and then, but he rarely needs it.

I hope to get him swimming this year too, so I figured water in the ear may be soemthing I better know what I need to do about it ahead of time, since alcohol causes the poor guy such a problem.

Oh, I use a cotton ball wetted with like the aloe to wipe his ear out.

Oh, I use a cotton ball wetted with like the aloe to wipe his ear out.

Bathing the head is something I do with a wrung-out washcloth and real care about no water in the ears. I do use cotton balls, and then a soft dry cloth to remove any sneaky dampness that got in anyway.


"His ears actually look good, just the normal ear like you described. I have been wiping it out of the ear flap, but felt like i should be doing more. "


Leave a healthy ear mostly alone, IMO, if it's moving normal-looking wax along: just wipe it gently toward the flap and off.

When I say "leave a healthy ear alone," I mean that the pointy ("open") ear, like our own ear that isn't covered with a heavy drooping flap, is busily moving soft golden-brown or darker brown wax outward, taking with it any dust, air impurities, etc., and it all comes out to where it's easily removed with no intrusive liquid or instrument.

Or are you seeing wax that is dark/odorous and/or actually filling the canal and not moving outward?

BTW, "So I got a non-alcohol cleaner at the vets's office for sensitive ears. They still make his ears red. "

I would not use anything that inflamed the dog's ears, even if it said "for sensitive ears." This opens the door to both kinds of infection (bacterial and yeast) because it breaches the skin barricade. (The inside of the ear is skin.)



JMO!

Thanks Connie! I haven't been cleaning them very often because of the redness, but I read you should clean your dog's ears once a week, and I thought, geez, am I really dropping the ball here? Nice to know.

 Quote: Julie Sloan

... I read you should clean your dog's ears once a week ....

IMHO, this instruction should be surrounded by a whole pile of modifiers.

For example, dogs with heavy droopy ears are very different (in ear-care requirements) from pointy-eared dogs.

I examine my pointy-ear dogs' ears regularly (once a week would be ideal) and make sure they and their wax are their usual color (in my dogs, a golden-brown; in some dogs, a darker brown), not inflamed, that they smell good, not stinky, yeasty, infected, and that the wax is healthy golden-brown or darker brown soft wax that is not plugging the opening to the canal. (I don't have Spaniel-type or hound dogs, but I do know they require more care than I'm describing here.)

Then I take a very soft cloth or make-up pad or cotton ball and gently move the wax accumulation toward the ear-edge and wipe it off.

This alerts me to any untoward developments, like an odor or redness or unusual debris, long before head-shaking or pawing would. Nipping problems in the bud is so much better than addressing them after they have progressed to head-shaking and itch/pain. (Ear infection pain can be awful, to the point of whimpering if the head is touched.)

If I did see a little inflammation, then I would reach for the "Flush" (if needed to clear the canal opening and get the med drop in) and the Otomax.
http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/cliented/dog_ears.aspx

If, shame on me, I saw an established infection with inflammation, grayish exudate, odor, and/or black or coffee-ground debris, then I would get the dog to the vet for cytology before I did anything to change it.

I'm not a health professional and this is all JMO. I believe that doing stuff to the canal of a healthy, well-functioning ear canal is often counterproductive, and that regular exams and the wax removal I describe above are all that a healthy pointy ear needs.

If you do these frequent exams, you are much more sure to catch any problems early.




Edited by Connie Sutherland (01/13/2012 06:09 PM)
Edit reason: add bold

Thanks for all the info. Tanka is a rottweiler, so he has droopy ears, but not quite the hound dog type. :-)