It is important to know how to clean the ears correctly to reduce the risk of
infections. Knowing the structure of the ear we will understand how we must
clean them without hurting the dog. The hearing conduct is not straight;
therefore it will not be useful to introduce a stick vertically, since it will
not pass even if we try.
It is not necessary to clean the dog's
ears daily. It is enough if we do this once a week. The dogs that have saggy
ears can have the exterior part of their ears cleaned daily; we will use this in
order to check that no small thorns have gone inside. The use of small sticks
will be limited to the exterior part of the ear and we will not use them to
clean the hearing conducts because we will push the dirt back in there. In order
to clean the inside of the ear we will use a special lotion for dogs. Generally
it is applied with drop counters, which are delicately introduced into the
ear. In dogs with floppy ears we must hold the counters vertically. Once the
drops have been introduced, we will massage the base of the ears so that the
product penetrates dissolving the impurities located at the end of the conduct.
Then, with a piece of cotton we will eliminate the left over liquid carefully.
The Infections: The regular care of the ears will allow us to detect a
possible infection rapidly. When we clean the dog's ears, it will not feel any
pain and the cotton must end up relatively clean. If this is not the case, we
are probably facing an ear infection. In normal conditions the ear wax must be
either white or yellowish. If it is black this can be because of a parasite
otitis, and if it is yellow and smells bad it can be another infection.
Plucking the Ears: In determined breeds it is convenient to pluck the
entrance to the hearing conduct, since the hairs can prevent the right amount of
ventilation. This operation can be performed with our fingers or a pair of
tweezers. We can also shave the entrance of the conduct with an electric razor.
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