I brought her in for a routine appointment a few weeks ago only to find out, she had an ear infection and I hadn’t noticed.
Having been distracted with other areas of my life, I had failed to notice the key signs and instead had attributed her additional itching to her allergy shot wearing out early – turns out I was wrong.
As a refresher for me and help for others, I’ve complied a key list of risk factors, signs of infection, treatment, and prevention of dog ear infections.
Risk Factors
Allergies – This is the main one for our dog. If the allergies are left untreated, that can quickly turn into an ear infection.
If your dog has general allergies like ours, it is important to keep up on the treatment discussed with your veterinarian so ear infections do not develop.
I had to do some additional research on other risk factors for dogs developing ear infections since the reason I am most familiar with is the dog having allergies. Here is the list I gathered from this AKC site.
- Moisture – This could potentially include grooming, swimming pools, or swimming in lakes.
- Autoimmune disorders
- Wax buildup or excessive cleaning – This is why it is important to clean your dog’s ears fairly regularly – how often depends on the dog itself and your dog’s lifestyle.
- Floppy ears – In my experience, having floppy ears means that the dog’s ears are more likely to hold on to moisture, which can easily turn into a dog ear infection.
Signs of Ear Infection
The main signs to watch out for to tell if your dog has an ear infection are below. Most of these I knew through experience, but I did find the additional note of having scabs in their ears on the AKC website.
- Itching
- Shaking Head
- Red Ears
- Discharge
- Smell – In my experience, when my dog’s ears have a strong fragrance, she usually has developed a yeast infection in her ear.
- Scabs in ears
Treatment
Appointment
If you suspect your dog has an ear infection, schedule an appointment to see your veterinarian. There they will also take a swab test of the ear to check for bacterial or yeast infections in the dog.
They will also look in the ears to see how the ear itself looks. Typically, what they are looking for in the dog’s ear as signs of infection are color, swelling, and discharge (again, link AKC site here).
Ear Drops
In my experience, dog ear infections, including dog ear yeast infections are likely treated with ear drops. Depending on the type of ear drop and the size of the dog, how frequently a day and how many drops in the ear can differ.
For example, my dog is just over 50 pounds and on one ear medication, she received 12 drops twice a day and another was only 8-10 drops once per day. Make sure to follow the vet’s recommendation here.
Ear Cleaning
What I didn’t realize until my most recent visit and having additional follow up issues with the infection not clearing up is that when treating for an ear infection, you are supposed to clean the dog’s ears every couple of days while being treated. Here is a picture of the ear cleaner that our veterinarian recommended to us.
Watch for Allergic Reaction to Ear Drops
Watch out for an allergic reaction to the ear drop treatment. This I don’t recall experiencing in the past with my dog, but after almost a week into her first treatment on the ear drops for her infection, I noticed little white dots inside her ear.
Seeing that in your dog’s ear is scary!
I cleaned her ear and wiped them out, then called the vet. As it turns out, this is a sign of an allergic reaction to the ear medication. I had to stop treatment right away and pick up a different type of medication.
Thank goodness, the white drops cleared up in a few days.
Prevention
Keep Up on Allergy Medication
For me, one of the best ways to prevent ear infections in my dog is to keep up on her allergy medication. Once we started getting her allergy shots every three months, she developed ear infections way less than she used to.
Regular Ear Cleaning
The other way to help prevent dog ear infections is to clean the dog’s ears regularly, especially after being in the water.
This is where I think I fell short for my dog’s last ear infection.
I had been cleaning her ears about once a month, but it is summer and we spend a lot of time at the lake, so her ears get wet more often than normal.
Dry Dogs Ears
What I realized my parents do with their dog and I should be doing with my own, is wiping or patting her ears and head down after she gets out of the lake water. This will help make sure that moisture doesn’t get stuck in her floppy ears after a fun day in the water.
For your reference, here is a shot of my parent’s dog’s ear, which is infection-free.
Also, here is a link to a super helpful article from AKC on how to clean a dog’s ears.
Here is a shot of my dog’s ear, while we are still trying to work on clearing up that infection.
Best of luck to you with your dog in the future and here’s to hoping your dog(s) stay ear infection and yeast infection free!
