I have an 8 month old yellow lab, he has been shaking his head and scratching at it. This has been going on and off for probably close to a month, but it's never been often enough to raise a concern. Just today it's gotten a lot worse.
One ear has a lot of dark build up in it, and it looks irritated, as if he's been scratching at it a lot.
Obviously the vet is closed, it being a weekend, anything I can do to relieve the discomfort until Monday? : (
It sounds like your dog has an ear infection which may be caused by allergies. You can clean it with a mixture of 1/2 rubbing alcohol and 1/2 white vinegar. Listerine is an antiseptic and a good ear cleaner too. If that does not help and the build up and head shaking continues, he should be seen by the vet. He may have to clean the ear out and prescribe antibiotic cream.You can find an ear cleaning solution at the pet store. Put some of the fluid in your dogs ears and squish it around for a minute or so. Then take a cotton swab and gently wipe the inside of the ear. A dogs ear canal is shaped like the letter "L" so you can get your finger pretty far down without worry of hurting the ear drum. Do this two times a day until you can make an appointment with your vet. Your dog may will probably need to be put on some antibiotic ear drops with something to reduce swelling.
An ear infection isn't really an "emergency" and your dog should be fine until monday, but I would try to clean his ears out.
Hope he feels better!Hii, poor thing. take him to 24hour emergency vet hospital. and Check yellow pages for after hours vets.Your puppy has ear mites, you can go to your 24 hour walmart and pick up ear mites dropsDear God, please do not put rubbing alcohol in your dog's ear! Unless you would like to harm him and leave such a bad experience for him that he'll never let you touch his head again!!!!!
There are a number of processes that could be going on. Bacterial infection, yeast infection, allergies (less likely) and ear mites. All of these are treated differently and not by anything you can do at home. He should be alright, although uncomfortable, over night. Your vet clinic should be open tomorrow, most of them are. Take him in first thing. Do not stick anything in to clean it out, do not put any kind of medication in his ear either. You can do serious harm. Best of luck with him!Normally, I would suggest getting Pet Relief ear cleanser. From petcarerx.com Which I am going to do, for future reference. It will help keep the ears clean if you notice anything building up in there, plus aide healing. Why did you guys wait so long to bring him in? It may be ear mites as well. Allergies and even a flea bite can cause infection, as per old-dog-treats-and-rawhide.com. The local pet store may have something to temporarily clean his ears, until the vet can give him proper treatment. But if it has gotten worse, you may want to see an "all night" vet-or one that is opened weekends. Ear infections are very painful. Especially to a puppy. I would hesitate to put anything in his ear at all, right now. It may make it worse, especially if you upset his PH balance in the ear. Please do NOT use listerine or anything else without a vet saying it is safe for your puppy/dog. Listerine can be safe on a cotton ball only. And not with an infection.
Ear infections are a common cause of bad smells. Make sure he doesn't have any discharges, bad odors or strange colors or insects in his ears. Infections need to be treated by a vet right away. As per ezine.com/?how-to/get-rid-of-dog-odor&id...its infected, clean it outSouth Bay Newfoundlands: You never want to put alcohol, vinegar, listerine, or anything else, even water, into a dog's ear.
What you should do is just take a cotton ball or kleenex and wipe out the dog's ear. Only clean the areas of the ear that you can see - do NOT stick the cotton ball/kleenex deep into the ear, you could damage the eardrum. Cleaning the ear will at least give your dog some relief until you can get him to the vet on Monday. He will probably still shake his head and scratch his ear right after you clean it. Your vet will be able to give you a fast drying solution to put in his ear to use to clean it when it gets dirty. Labs ears are dirty A LOT because of their floppy ears. I have one who has terrible ears:)
Also, it is not garanteed that you puppy has mites. It is possible, but you can't tell by just reading the information you have given.
Hope your puppy feels better soon:)#If you have any other info about this subject , Please add it free.# |
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Posted on January 8th 2009 in bomisasia.com edit
