Hi everyone

i havent been cleaning my bichon puppy Maggie's ears and just wondering if people do them regularly?

when i took her to groomers for paws etc to be cut she plucked a few hairs out saying they'll be done every time she gets groomed if they are hairy.  im just wondering if i should be doing more?

ive seen in the pet shop drops that you can use weekly..  should i be using these or only if she has mites?are they good for preventing mites?

what do you do with your fluffs ears?!

Thanks

Gemma (and Maggie!)

Hi i use hypoallergenic baby wipes for mine, they dont have hairy ears so muck gets in them easily. I just clean them when needed, have a quick look see wether they need doing or not every few days, or if there are any signs of irritation if there scratching or not. Alof of people i know with dogs dont do this on a regular basis and then wonder why they pay 45 at the vets for a mite/ ear infection. Just carry on cleaning them whenever needed.

Louise

I clean my dogs ears but also remove fur from inside the ear to prevent cancur (sp) which can make their ears stink to high heaven and get infected and sore. Its not the most pleasent thing for the dog but neither is an infection. Prevention is better than cure. You can pull bits of the inside ear hair out with tweezers or even between your fingers or special clamp type things (sorry dont know the name) that the groomers use.
I know you have to do this with poodles and bichons having similar coat etc would imagine you should do too.

I put a pinch of Thornit in my Beardies ears and pluck out any hair. Also use Colloidal Silver to wipe them out

Usually I give then a wipe out once a week and a squeeze of ear cleaner or colloidal silver.

I use ear cleaning wipes once a week from P@H . He has such big ears they act like funnels hoovering dirt in from the air!!!

> a squeeze of ear cleaner

Is this just a shop bought dog ear cleaner?

With a  dog of your breed type yes you do need to pa attention to ensuring hair does not grow in the ears.  With them already having floppy ears the air flow is reduced making infections more likely than in prick eared breeds with less hair.

I would ask your groomer  to show you how to keep the ear canals free of hair so you can do this between visits, it will help greatly.

I have a prick eared breed that I have never had to ear clean, yet one of my girls developed a severe ear infection that took a lot of time and money (over £500) to clear up.  I now regularly (every few weeks) clean her ears with a veterinary ear cleaner called Epi-Otic.

>Is this just a shop bought dog ear cleaner?

I use P@H Ear wipes and colloidal silver bought from www.ag4all.co.uk and have use differnt ear cleaners but at the moment am using Maythen Ear drops from Holistic Pet upplies.

I clean my bernese's ears when they are mucky (not that often) but I have to check the setter's ears more regularly because they do get quite bad and sore.

I check mine regularly as they have to be stripped, but have never (touch wood) had to actually clean them...I do pull out any long hairs around the inside and generally tidy...again, another breed-dependant issue

We use Epi-Otic too...Have been using it for over 10 years.

Clean about once a month or when needed.
We put loads of Epi-Otic in the ear, massage for few minutes outside at the base of the ear and let the dog shake,  then use cotton wool.
It is amazing how much stuff can come out of a seemingly clean ear when cleaned like this!

In the summer the dogs tend to swim a lot so get water in their ears and seem to need more cleaning.
One of our bitches also gets mucky ears when in season!

Yep the epiotic seems to have worked well to cln out the mucj whwn it was inffected and as you do evry 6 weeks or so I clean hers just in case, fortuantely have not foudn any muck sicne the infection cleared up, but was warned that once a dog has had a bad ear infetion they can be prone to them.

The others I give a wipe over less often, after sniffing everyones lugs, but never used to before this issue last year.

My Beardies need to have their ears checked regularly.  They are so hairy, and my youngest girl gets quite mucky.  I pluck out what I can with my fingers and use the Leo ear cleaner (I know it's changed name, but can't recall it at this time!)  I then use the ear wipes to clean up all the muck that has been loosened by the Leo.  The leathers would get quite brown and mucky with ear wax if I left them.