How to prevent dog ear infections:
Keeping your dog’s ears clean and checking them regularly can help avoid painful and stressful infections and inflammation, caused mostly by allergies.
Dogs rely heavily on their hearing and their sensitive ears are prone to irritation due to a change in climate, foreign objects lodging inside the canal and allergies. Ear infections are one of the most common reasons dogs need to see a veterinarian and the likely diagnosis is bacterial based.
What causes an ear infection?
Bacteria and yeast infections are often the cause of ear inflammation with the most diagnosed outer ear ailment being Otitis. If your dog’s outer ear is not treated, Otitis can quickly spread through the eardrum and into the inner ear. Ear mites, hair overgrowth, trapped water, a tumour or foreign objects caught in the ear canal like pollens or grass, can also cause ear infections. Allergies are considered the most common cause of inflammation, however dogs can pick up ear irritations in any of the following ways too:
Humidity
Exuberant ear cleaning
Swimming
Hypothyroidism
How to spot symptoms?
If a dog is vomiting or nauseous, it’s a sign of a much more serious ear infection and medical treatment should be given immediately. Most ear infections however can be avoided with proper grooming and care. Symptoms of an ear infection include:
Ear scratching
Brown, yellow or bloody discharge
Odour in the ear
Redness
Swelling
Crusted or scabby skin on the near ear flap
Hair loss around the ear
Wiping the ear area on the floor or furniture
Head shaking or head tilt
Loss of balance
Unusual eye movements
Walking in circles
Hearing loss
If these symptoms persist, please seek veterinary attention, as chronic ear conditions are very difficult to manage.
Why it’s important to get treatment?
A simple outer ear irritation can quickly turn into a more serious inner ear infection if left untreated for a certain time period. Statistically 1 in 5 dogs will visit a vet for an ear related condition. Otitis flares up when bacteria or yeast organisms increase to an overwhelming number or are replaced by pathogenic (disease causing) organisms.
While Otitis is usually an outer ear infection, over time your dog’s eardrum becomes porous and the infection can travel from outer to inner ear through the eardrum. If this is not painful enough for a dog, the disease can cause the eardrum to rupture. It can heal again within 3 -4 weeks if professionally treated by a vet but is deeply painful and very stressful.
