My Dog Has An Ear Infection

Hey everyone!

So today is a little personal update as well as an informative one. I took my Pug x Chihuahua Lucky to the vet yesterday, because there was a funky smell coming from his right ear! I thought surely this has to be an infection, so I took him to the vet to confirm and get proper treatment.

So, a few things before I get into what happened at the vet:

Symptoms:
- Constant ear scratching (can get bloody)
- Funky odor coming from ear
- Redness around ear
- Yellow/brown pus/wax type material in and around the ear
- Rolling around on ear (sign of discomfort)

Before I was able to take him to the vet, I cleaned his ear out with a half water, half vinegar mixture. The vinegar is supposed to dry out the ear so that bacteria cannot live. It is important to keep the dog’s ear dry so that infection will likely not spread any further. This is a simple home remedy I found on the internet, and I found that my dog was more comfortable and not as irritated by his infection afterwards. However, this is not a permanent solution and you must still bring your dog to the vet to get proper treatment to kill the infection.

Back to the story – Lucky was diagnosed by our local vet and told us he had a ‘severe’ infection. He suggested a swab test to find out what caused the infection, and to find out exactly what antibiotics he needs. In the mean time, he started Lucky on a treatment plan with an antibiotic ear drop known as Mometamax. He said that if he did not respond to this antibiotic then the test would reveal exactly what he needs. So far Lucky is on day 2 of his treatment and his ear is no longer bothering him already – however he is supposed to stay on it for 10 days to kill the infection.

As always, take your dog to the vet right away if anything out of the normal occurs! It is always better to be safe than sorry. The longer you wait, the longer your dog is in pain, and the larger the vet bill when you finally take them, usually!