Dogs, ear infections...

-

Cope

Fusing with fire
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
Messages
6,737
Reaction score
10,191
Location
San Jose, Ca.
My dang dog gets ear infections all the time.
I keep him out of the long grass, keep his head out of the water, clean his ears with special ear wash.

Dam. Anyone else have a dog like this?
What do you do?

Right now hes miserable so I'm letting him lay on the electric blanket for the night.

20190301_193444_zpsxgvqwjso.jpg


I cant stand to see him like this but I just have no idea what causes it or how to prevent it. I got so much ear medication for him its rediclious. This guy gets more doctor visits than I had in the last 10 years...
 
I had a border Collie back when I was a teenager and he kept getting ear infections, after a second trip to the vet found out he had ear mites causing it. The medicine I got the second time to kill the mites cured him.
 
How often are you cleaning his ears? My dog gets ear infections too if I gets lazy about cleaning her ears often enough.
 
My pit ( Blazer ) is allergic to artificial fillers in certain dog foods, the food was causing ear infections. The poor dog would damn near tear his ears off scratching. The vet recommended we switch to all natural food with no fillers for his diet. Blazer is now free of any ear problems. It took too many years to find his problem.
I hope you can figure out what is causing your dogs misery.
 
We try to clean his ears once a week.

We feed good food (pure vida) but I'll check the bag next time and look for fillers.

What brand do you use?

Thank you for the advice.
 
One trip to the vet for EarMite drops cured my wife's dog too.

This dog gets a different meal three times a day, small portions.
Chicken,lamb, and beef. I have all but eliminated corn, and anything labeled "by-product". That is a catch-all word for ground up anything,so who knows what it could be, probably not anything good for Georgie.

70pounds now, Georgie runs 2 to 4 miles a day, cuz he likes to. One time, in summer even, he charged hard for 5.5 miles. I had to pull over and call him into the truck. He panted for a long long long time after that, so I won't let him run that far any more. He runs thru the tall grass, among the corn, occasionally in the wheat, etc, (he's a country dog), in the ditch, where-ever; even surprised a skunk one time. But no more ear-mites, in almost 3 years.
 
Last edited:
Try ZYMOX. We use it to keep our guys ears clean. Also, keep their ears plucked
 
We only feed Blazer blue basics or science diet. The blue basics is his food of choice and is what he eats now.
His overall health, weight and coat is benefiting from his current diet going on 2 years now.
 
Its just about time to buy more food so I'll go look at blue basics.

I will also look for ZYMOX.

He no longer a country dog, sadly enough hes now a city dog...

Me and him are now "city folk".

It makes me said for him to be a city dog but life is what it is.
 
My girl Reba had a bad ear infection for a few weeks. Constant itching, walking with her head tilted, etc.

Cleaned her ears daily with ear cleaning solution placed on a cotton ball and consistently found clumps and clumps of wax. Ears smelled pretty bad, too.

Thought it might be ear mites so I started giving her ear mite treatment from Murdochs. Didn't change a thing.

Finally took her to the vet, they took a sample, found high yeast levels and gave her a one time ear infection treatment in both ears.

Instantly got better.

I'm the dude that will do everything I can to prevent taking my pups to the vet. This is one of those rare cases where I'm glad I did.
 
Dose he have any other issues? Like skin? I went through all these issues for a long time, finally found out that she had Cushing's, now she is on pills daily and she is doing well, and happy. I am the type of person that will do anything to take care of my friend.
 
Im no vet nor will I tell you I know more than your Vet but having over 80 Bulldogs (what mainstream news call "pit bulls") on my yard. Having dogs since 1979 I can say I qualify as a experienced dog owner.
There are many mitigating factors when it comes to a dogs health, from diet (rarer than most other reasons on average) to hygiene to plain bad luck.
What I think you should do is eliminate all the rhetoric and pay attention to what your dog does, goes, eats and take it from there.
Do the ears smell ? Bad smell ? Sweet like smell ? Is he continuously scratching at them, rubbing his ears against anything, floor, walls, chairs (furniture) it could a mite issue and not a bacteria type of infection.
You would be surprised what a little coconut oil can do for your dogs ears, Apple Cider (vinegar)
In fact cod liver oil is great for their skin (hair) so lie I said they're are dozen reasons what could be wrong make sure to eliminate one at a time before you go Dr.Doolittle on the poor boy.
Just my thoughts on the matter...
MAPS
 
I'm gonna go look a new food today.

It seems like all the vet wants to do prescribe all kinds of pills. I figured others have had this issue and thought I'd try a more natural approach.
 
Im no vet nor will I tell you I know more than your Vet but having over 80 Bulldogs (what mainstream news call "pit bulls") on my yard. Having dogs since 1979 I can say I qualify as a experienced dog owner.
There are many mitigating factors when it comes to a dogs health, from diet (rarer than most other reasons on average) to hygiene to plain bad luck.
What I think you should do is eliminate all the rhetoric and pay attention to what your dog does, goes, eats and take it from there.
Do the ears smell ? Bad smell ? Sweet like smell ? Is he continuously scratching at them, rubbing his ears against anything, floor, walls, chairs (furniture) it could a mite issue and not a bacteria type of infection.
You would be surprised what a little coconut oil can do for your dogs ears, Apple Cider (vinegar)
In fact cod liver oil is great for their skin (hair) so lie I said they're are dozen reasons what could be wrong make sure to eliminate one at a time before you go Dr.Doolittle on the poor boy.
Just my thoughts on the matter...
MAPS
You feed them the coconut oil or apply to the ears? Sound dumb but our lab constantly has trouble with her ears, and is now deaf.
 
My dang dog gets ear infections all the time.
I keep him out of the long grass, keep his head out of the water, clean his ears with special ear wash.

Dam. Anyone else have a dog like this?
What do you do?

Right now hes miserable so I'm letting him lay on the electric blanket for the night.

I cant stand to see him like this but I just have no idea what causes it or how to prevent it. I got so much ear medication for him its rediclious. This guy gets more doctor visits than I had in the last 10 years...

The Bulls like any other dog with a Round skull vs an elongated one like a Shepard are more inclined to ear issues because the ears are small and tight to their head and the ear canals are deeper into the skull so you have less air circulation. Water and dirt are more likely to get trapped inside. A quick mix is rubbing alcohol and vinegar equal parts. Be careful around the eyes. The vinegar naturalizes the PH level and the alcohol aides in drying and cleaning, this will stop the itching. If he has open sores the alcohol is going to hurt.

My Shar-Pei is a big baby and wont stay still so I use an ear wash. 3 shar-pei's and they have all had ear issues. Not selling anything here but this does the trick. You can get it at the Vet but you'll pay twice as much. Look around and you can probably find it cheaper.

Virbac Epi-Otic Advanced Ear Cleaner
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056EAKSM/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
 
Last edited:
You feed them the coconut oil or apply to the ears? Sound dumb but our lab constantly has trouble with her ears, and is now deaf.

I said earlier, I'm no Vet (mind you I have a BA.Sc. (Masters in Biology...) Ergo, slight idea of the "human" anatomy but you would be surprised how eerily familiar dog and man can be.... Getting back to your question and far from being or sounding dumb, it's a logical assumption either way.
Yet the proper way to apply it is to have a few drops applied on to the ear. In fact try to have the oil luke warm so it's not that uncomfortable for the dog, even if you need to warm it up on a burner/stove, let it sit cool down and take a dropper (eye, etc) and apply a few drops on each ear. If you have the time and patience you can also add some garlic cloves (same thing warm up in a pan etc) and use some guaze cotton swabs to apply it on.
The cod liver oil, you will need to have him swallow it about 1-2 tablespoons, this is for his coat.
All dogs behind their canines (them 2 BIG ole Teeth on each side) have an empty spot and if you just raise his lip, you can wriggle in the spoon and let it spill in, he will not be able to "spit" it, once in.
Like I said, no such thing as, dumb questions...(sometimes, dumb answers) but never questions.
Best of luck.

I'm 56 yrs old, I've been playing with these dogs from the time I was 13 (Folks did not even know what a Pit Bull was back then) A good 30 yrs I have been breeding the same bloodline and have made my mistakes but one thing I pride myself with is when I got my first bulldog, I was told this was not a breed for everyone and that's why it should NOT be sold to just anyone. In the decades I've played with them, I believe less than 5 have left my yard. I do not sell any, nor advocate "Joe Public" owning them. Simply, people live vicariously thru their dogs.
These dogs had and have a certain reputation and many a coward has had them for these wrong reasons.
Anyways, I'm drifting from subject, personally I feel we are responsible for the pets and children we bring into this world and this is one reason I never sold any, as I had no idea what would become of him..... Just like when your boy takes a wife.... lol He is now gone.
Best of luck and if you need any help feel free to pm me and I'll try my best to give you sound advice to the best of my ability.
MAPS
 
We have 4 Redbone Coonhounds. One of them has a chronic ear problem. Vet gave us some stuff to put in her ears...will go ask the boss the name of it.
 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004E2Z4QA/?tag=joeychgo-20

Hope the link works. This is the stuff our vet gave us. Please keep in mind that Mita does not have an ear infection, just a ton of crap from digging etc.
Ernestina fills a container with fairly warm water and puts the container of it in it to warm it up some. After it warms up she just gives Mita a squirt or 2 in each ear, massaging the ear canals right afterwards (you will hear it squishing it around when you are massaging the right area). She was doing it once or twice a week, but latley MIta has not been shaking her head any so. For a while Ernie was just using the stuff at room temperature...which normally resulted in Ernie wearing it as Mita shook her head as soon as the liquid got into her ears. But warming it up stopped Mita from shaking her head.
 
-
Back
Top