Dog Ear Infections: Causes, Symptoms And Treatment
Have you ever noticed that your dog’s ear smells bad? Is your dog constantly itching inside his ear? If so, it’s likely that your dog has an ear infection. Yes, a dog ear infection. Just like humans, dogs too are susceptible to bacteria growing in their ear canals and turning into an infection.
There are multiple things that can cause a dog ear infection. The primary one is water getting into their ear canal. Whether it is from a bath or a romp in the lake, water getting into your dog’s ear can stay there, begin to grow bacteria and then infect the ear canal. Another cause can be moist dirt or debris getting into the ear canal and not being cleaned. Rarer, but still possible is your dog having a misshapen or damaged ear canal or drum. In this case, the infection would still be caused by water or debris getting into the ear canal, but being unable to be drained because of the damage or misshape.
The majority of ear infections are caused by air not reaching and drying out your dog’s ears. Therefore, dogs with long hair within their ears or floppy ears are more likely to develop infections.
The symptoms of a dog ear infection can appear quite suddenly. Commonly, they take the form of your dog itching the inside of his ear with his paw. His ear might be red or hot to touch. The best indicator of the presence of an infection is how your dog’s ear smells. The interior of dog’s ear smelling dirty or bad indicates an infection. Not all of these symptoms may appear in every dog. Sometimes no symptoms appear at all, but this is rare.
Treating an ear infection requires antibiotics prescribed by a veterinarian. Because they are bacterial infections, a dog ear infection will not resolve itself without help with medication. Usually, the vet will prescribe a topical ointment that you squirt into your dog’s ear twice a day. You may have to squish your dog’s ear to ensure that the ointment goes as deep as possible and touches every infected area. An alternative is for your vet to provide you with oral antibiotics, meaning ones that your dog eats. This type is usually prescribed when the infection is quite severe and the antibiotics need to clear up an infection from the inside out. Sometimes, the two will be prescribed together.
Many times, you can prevent a dog ear infection by using a solution to clean your dog’s ears after bathing or he plays in water. This solution is a liquid that you squirt into your dog’s ears or, alternatively, apply to the interior of his ear using a cotton swab.
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