Cleaning your dog’s ear may something many people tend to overlook. It is important to keep your little dog’s ears clean in order to avoid ear infections and other serious problems. Ear infections and ear mites can cause great damage to your dog’s ears if the problem is ignored. Your dog may suffer permanent damage to their ear drum and may even cause loss of hearing. Hopefully, these horrible consequences will get you to pay more attention to the health of your dog’s ears.
If your dog’s ear naturally stand such as Yorkies, you might not need to care for them as much as a dog’s ears that flop down like a Maltese of Bichon frise. Floppy ears tend to trap more dirt and moisture inside the ear canals increasing the chances of an ear infection. However, keep in mind that standing ears can still retain moisture and dirt, so they still need to be cleaned on occasion. For my Yorkies, I pluck the hair out of their ear canals. This helps keep the moisture out of their ears. Plucking the hair out of your Yorkie’s ear won’t be their favorite experience, but it’s for their own good.
For floppy eared dogs, you’ll want to clean their ears about once a week. For dogs with standing ears, I would clean the ears about every other week. You’ll also want to clean their ears after they’ve gone for a swim or been exposed to a lot of water such as a bath. Remember, water and moisture in ears = BAD. Also, if you ever smell a bad odor coming from their ear canal, its usually a sign of a possible ear infection. At this point, I would suggest taking your dog to the vet.
To clean the ear canals, I use an ear cleaner such as the one pictured above. You may want to get your dog between your legs so they don’t try to run off. My Bichon, Muffin, hates to get her ears cleaned. Next, simply place the cleaner into you dog’s ears and gently massage at the base of the ear canal. The massaging helps to work the cleaner around inside the ear canal. After that, you’re all done. Your dog will probably shake their head to remove any excess cleaner, which is fine. Just remember to keep up the ear cleaning on a regular basis and check for any strange odors or coloring within in your dog’s ear.