Ears!

This is just a few words on avoiding problems with your dogs ears. Dogs with erect ears rarely have problems apart from dust or grass seed causing irritation, but you should check that the ears do not smell or look dirty or waxy every time you groom, your nose will tell you if your dog has a problem with it’s ears.

Dogs with earflaps, (leathers) that hang down are prone to problems, those with heavy or hairy earflaps suffer the most. At every grooming check with the nose there should be little if any smell, remove excessive hair and check there is not a build up of a waxy substance.

Never ever poke down the ear with anything including cotton buds, clean the flap with a piece of cotton cloth if needed, don’t use cottonwool it can leave bits behind. If you do think a problem is brewing then I would advise the use of Thornit Ear Powder, available for Petcetera and many other pet stores. This is excellent and dealing with the more common ear problems. The use of Stronghold for fleas will also help control the occurrence of ear mite.

Two more things, check your dogs ears and feet if it has been on unmown or longish grass, look for grass seeds particularly the type that look like arrows if your dog has ear flaps with long hair (feathers) this is particularly important as these grass seeds can work their way deep into the ear and even penetrate the cavity of the brain. If they are in the feet they can work their way into the leg and will usually emerge in the foot, leg or arm pit as an abscess. And the last thing, if you or the neighbours have cats the chances are they may have ear mites, these can and do attack dogs so treat the cats ears as well as dog.

thansk jackie

funny - I was trying to treat Bruno's cut on his muzzle yesterday - b4 he ate the antiseptic wip !! LOL and noticed his easr were a bit wiffy - like cheesy warm feet - they look really quite clean though -any ideas ?

dani

Do you know anything about gungy eyes?

Sorry not wanting to hijack you're thread!

Uurrh dani, how do you now what cheesy warm feet smell like?

the OH of course !!! LOL
best description I could give !!

Ooh kick him to the curb dani, dirty boy!

god I would love to !!
bloody stuck with him though - its ok he slags me off as I have a bad habit of wandering around everywhere barefoot and I have feet like an aborigeny (sp) Like leather !! so I cant criticise too much !! LOL

I agree entirely with your post Jackie about checking their paws for grass seeds.Unfortunately,Abe was plagued with them and always in the same spot in same paw.He had 2 operations to graft tougher skin onto the webbing (where they always went) and despite me/vet doing everything to stop it happening-it was an on-going excercise.

One of the nurses at my local vet did tell me of a trick which can remove the grass seed without surgery.You must allow an abcess to form,then sterilise a needle and p r i c k it.Then smear magnesium sulphate (available from any chemist) liberally over the abcess,then bandage it and keep applying more throughout the day/evening.The magnesium suphate will draw out the grass seed along with puss and dirty blood from abcess.Once the swelling on the abcess has reduced (it will look visibly empty and deflated)-smear Germoline/Savlon etc over it and again bandage for a day.

I did this approximately 30 times (yes really!) on Abe and worked everytime!

Yes that works fine if it is in the feet or legs, no good if it is in the brain.

Granted!

I still check the ears regulary for grass seeds and use baby wet wipes for cleaning the dirt/wax out.Fortunately he loves having his ears cleaned!