Talk to me about really dirty ears.

[ChristyMarie]

Ok, I have a 9 month old lab. I've had floppy eared dogs before (2 St Bernards, Great Dane, another lab) and I've never had a dog who had ears this disgusting. I've had him to the vet twice to check for an ear infection. Vet says no infection, just dirty.



They smell (the goop smells, you can't smell them just standing near him though). They are nasty. The goop is dark brown and sticky. It doesn't come out on its own (on the hair around the ear) but stays in the canal. I have a liquid ear cleaner and I clean with a warm washcloth. Cotton balls in ears during baths. I'm about to go buy ear powder to try to help. It is the only other thing I can think of.

He doesn't act like they bother him. He doesn't dig at them and doesn't moan when you rub them....you know, that "oh that feels so good don't ever stop" doggy ear moan? yeah, no. He's fairly neutral on having his ears rubbed. Much prefers the belly or butt. LOL.

Any suggestions for cleaning them? I don't want them to get infected and I don't want him to be uncomfortable. I've just never encountered this level of yuck before.

[Sol_y_Paz]

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/Adob...0Treatment.pdf
This should help you

[Ola_]

Originally Posted by Sol_y_Paz

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/Adob...0Treatment.pdf
This should help you

I have heard great things about this from a friend who has a cocker spaniel with chronic ear problems.

[luv-my-boys]

I've heard of the "blue ear" treatment as well. We have dogs that have needed their ears cleaned out due to "gunk" as I call it. Never infections just stuff. I normally just use a few cotton balls wet with a mixture of tea tree oil and water and clean weekly, more in the summer as they tend to get dirtier around her.

My neighbor has labs and swears its a "lab thing" for gunky ears. She does a mix of diluted water and vinegar and also cleans them out weekly.

[wahoowhippets]

I second the blue ear wash as well. You may also want to try this:

http://www.amazon.com/Zymox-Pet-Trea...2303754&sr=8-1

Zymox Otic with Hydrocortisone for dogs...I use this on my dogs with chronic ear problems and it cleared it all up!

Another thing you could try is Malaseb shampoo for dogs...I bathe the dogs in it and also put it in their ears and their ears have never looked better!

Hope this helps as I know how frustrating it can be to go the vet, drop money on cleansers that don't keep the problem away for good...

[Ola_]

Another thought - look at what you are feeding him. Some dogs have this reaction to grains or other ingredients in their food. The yucky ears may be a manifestation of a allergy/sensitivity.

[Miasmamma]

Originally Posted by Sol_y_Paz

http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/Adob...0Treatment.pdf
This should help you

I've used this for years and I love it. My 5 year old gordon has never had an infection and neither have my weims. I use it maybe once a month on the weim, but the gordon gets it everytime he gets a bath, so about once a week. I would follow the schedule through the first 2 weeks and then see what his ears look like after that. Then you may be able to back off to once a week or so. It does stain though, so be careful where you do it at. Make sure he's not in your living room when he first shakes his head!

[lonegirl]

Did your vet do swabs? Sound like yeasty ears....
If he did....
Get a good ear cleaner (Vet Solutions is a good one) pour the cleaner into ear canal and grasp the ear at the canal and squish it around in there (you will hear it sloshing around) use cotton balls and as far as your finger will go in (their canals are L shaped so you wont hit ear drum) scoop out liquid and gunk. Keep doing this until clean.

Dry ears well after baths/swimming. Some dogs need more frequent ear cleaning than others....but bear in mind that too frequent of cleaning can exaserbate the problem at the ears will naturally produce more wax in response to the cleaning.

[BeingMe]

After trying mostly everything on my lab we did one like the blue solution but got the recipe from here http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/ears.html . If you are diligent and do what it says, following the timing, you should not have a problem. We did it 4 years ago and as long as she stays away from wheat and other treats we don't have an issue. It has crept up a few times but it's from wrong snacks or food and as soon as we switch the food it goes away.
I definitely would do the solution. I got my gentian from a pharmacy as well as the stronger isoprpyl alcochol, a good idea is to call around first.

[EricaDoula]

I have a lab shar/pie mix, and he gets that too. The vet we saw did a yeast test, and it came back positive (2 years ago), but it's a yeast infection when it gets black/brown goopy. They gave us epi-otic. I clean his ears every 2 weeks or so, and they are much much better.