Dog Ear Infection

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Winter months. Snow is falling in some parts of the world.

Have some fun with your dog out in the snow.

Here are 2 helpful articles about pet care tip for wintry months.

Chilly Dogs? Try These Tricks To Keep Your Pooch Warm - The Detriot News.

Jack Frost Nips at Pets’ Heels, Vets Say - ZooToo.

Cold, and more often, wetness causes frostbite in pets. Pay extra attention to their ears, paws, nose, and tail.  The extremities are prone to the cold and wetness makes them vulnerable to frostbites.

Have a safe frolick in winter wonderland.

I wish you and every animal, happiness and abundance good health.

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Keeping your pet’s ears healthy would reduce the risk of a dog ear infection.

If you are a big fan of the TV show, Vets In Practice, like me, you would remember Dr. Joe Inglis.

He’s a veterinarian in England. Watching him treat big and small animals, and helping them back to health was a real joy.

Here’s a video of Dr Inglis, Keep Your Dog Healthy Nose To Tail.

He will show you how to check and clean your dog’s ears.

Another reason to watch the video is Jack, the Springer Spaniel X Border Collie. Let him charm you.

Technorati Tags: care tip, Dog Ear Infection, dog's ears, Dr Joe Inglis

Some dog guardians may not realise that allergies can lead to a dog ear infection.

In the article, Dog With Allergies Has Odor, Dr Kimmey explained the relationship between dogs having allergies and how it affects the skin and ears.

The typical symptoms of allergic reactions are itching, redness and skin infections.

Some dogs also have an odor. This is likely due to a mild infection caused by yeast or bacteria.

Since the ear canal is an extension of the skin, what affects the skin may affect the ears.

This is the reason why dogs with allergies often have chronic ear infections.

The way to go is to educate yourself about dog allergies and seek the appropriate treatments.

When you take care of the allergies, the dog ear infection is less likely to recurr.

Read the full article here.

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What has dog ear infection got to do with dog supplement?

I got a email from Dr Jones recently. For those of you who’re wondering who he is …
Well, he’s a veterinarian, and owner of Nelson Animal Hospital, in Canada.

He wrote to tell me about a new dog supplement. I was really curious. Dr Jones always have something good for the dogs and cats.

With his years of medical vet experience, and vast knowledge of natural remedies, I trust that Dr Jones could help many dogs become healthier.  

So, what makes this dog supplement different from other pet supplements?

The reason for making Ultimate Canine Health Formula was because he was seeing more dogs falling ill thses days than in the past. And he wants to help pets become healthier.

Here is an excerpt from his letter.

What strike me was that, “Ear Infections” came in top on his list of dog diseases.

What If My Dog is Sick?

It’s no secret that we have a pretty unhealthy population of dogs… our canine population is sicker than ever before in history.

I am seeing illnesses that revolve around a breakdown in our dogs’ immune systems.

Has your dog had ANY of these diseases?

* Ear Infections
* Skin Allergies
* Urinary Tract Infections
* Arthritis
* Dental Disease
* Seizures
* Chronic Vomiting and Diarrhea
* Hip Dysplasia
* Kidney Disease
* Heart Disease
* Pancreatitis
* Diabetes
* Liver Disease
* Thyroid disease
* Serious Auto-Immune System Disorders
* Cancer

If the answer is YES, then I suggest that you supplement with Ultimate Canine Health Formula as it will aid in treating most of those serious health disorders.

If the answer is NO, then you should be looking at doing WHATEVER you can to ensure that Your beloved dog doesn’t get any of these unwanted diseases.

Ultimate Canine Health Formula is designed to Prevent and Treat These Common Dog Diseases.

It makes so much more SENSE to prevent these diseases and disorders before they happen.

If your pet has a dog ear infection, could it possibly be caused by a breakdown of your dog immune system, as mentioned by Dr Jones?

If your dog has a compromised immume system, take action now to resolve the condition.

Think of using natural treatments or remedies to help boost or regulate the immume system.

If you are already using supplements, look for one with a key immune protective blend. Bovine colostrum, Inositol, Aloe vera, and Maiitake mushrooms help to give your dog a strong and healthy immume system.

P.S. You can now try Ultimate Canine Health Formula … almost FREE … just pay for shipping. This SPECIAL ends at midnight on 30/10/2008(Pacific) or earlier if the 740 remaining bottles of Supplement are gone before Thursday.

Find out how a complete dog supplement can help prevent diseases and extend your dog’s life.

Technorati Tags: Dog Ear Infection, dog supplement, dog supplements, dog vitamin

I read this story about Buster, a black terrier with a dog ear infection in the Express And Star. I wasn’t sure I wanted to share this story at first … And this is why.

Buster, a 14-year old terrier lived with his family in Black Country, UK. The two brothers who were Buster’s guardians failed to give him proper care.

Buster had been ill and had ear infections. But nothing had been done to help the distress dog.

RSPCA officials first visited Buster and the family in 2003, advised them that the dog needed to see a vet, and gave them a money voucher to pay for the treatment. The brothers didn’t take any action, and continue to neglect the dog.

Thirteen months later, the RSPCA official went back to the family after a tip off from a member of the public. But it was too late this time.

Buster was found in a terrible condition. The RSPCA official drove the dog to a nearby vet, but Buster died on the way there. He had heart failure due to blood poisoning, a result of the dog ear infection.

This story has a sad ending … that’s the reason why I didn’t want to write about it initially. The neglect was cruel and caused unnecessry pain and suffering to a dog.

However, a thought cross my mind. What if there is someone out there now, who has a dog with a ear infection … and this person is delaying proper treatment for the dog due to some reasons? No, not mindless neglect, but maybe a financial problem.

If this is you, I ask you to make a sound judgement. I know a lot of pet guardians who will do all they can for a sick pet. I also understand that some of you care deeply for your pet, but are just unable to afford the vet visit, especially when it happens once too often.

But you can still help your dog to heal. Learn and read all you can on the subject. Reseach the library and the internet for authentic information.

You can learn to examine your dog’s ears and look out for symptoms of dog ear infection. If it’s a mild ear infection, you can use natural remedies at home to treat the dog ear infection. Go to the vet if the condition did not improve, or if there are signs of aggravation.

Certain vet clinics have installment repayment plan for clients on request. The Humane Society and some private animal shelters may also be able to provide the vet treatment at a subsidized rate.

Ask around, and you will almost certainly get the assistance you require.

A dog ear infection starts off mild with a itch, but can become a painful experience for your dog if left untreated. Take good care of your fur buddy.

Read more here - Buster.

P.S. The “pointy ear” Black Scottish Terrier in the photo is not Buster.

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Your pet is having another dog ear infection? And you start to query. Is it bacterial infection, yeast infection, or ear mites or …? And you want to get the medicine that can help to make your pet feel better.

So, let’s take a closer look at bacterial ear infection. What causes bacterial infection, and what are some of the signs?

It’s not uncommon for pets to have dog ear infection. Healthy human ears and dog ears both have bacteria present, and that’s fine. The problem only arises when the environment inside the ear changes, leading to a weaken ear canal that is unable to fight an infection.

But why would the environment inside the ear change?

There are a number of possible factors. These may sound familiar to you because they are the same factors that cause dog ear infection.

Just remember that a weaken ear canal, due to any of the following factors, usually leads to a secondary bacterial infection of the ears.

Allergies
The most common underlying disease leading to bacterial ear infection are allergies. Allergic reactions are often manifested through the skin. When your dog has allergies, the skin lining the ear canal can be hyper-sensitive and becomes inflamed easily.

An inflamed ear canal looks red, feels warm, and has more moisture inside, than a normal ear. This provides the perfect environment for bacteria to multiply.

Water In The Ear
Some dogs love swimming in the pool or a lake. A lucky few go ocean surfing with their human. Often though, water gets into the ears during a simple bath. Excess moisture in the ear breeds bacteria and yeast.

Excess Ear Wax
Ear wax that get lodged in the ear canal blocked off light and air circulation. Bacterial and yeast multiply quickly in such a warm, dark and moist environment.

Foreign Body
Grass seeds, sand, insects, and any particle that is stuck in the ear will irritate the skin lining the ear. The dog scratches the ear to get rid of the irritation. When the skin is broken due to scratching, it leads to a secondary bacterial infection.

Ear Mites
Ear mites dig tunnels under the skin lining the ear to lay eggs. The sore open skin tissue leads to bacterial infection.

Dog Breeds
Some dogs have long floppy ears(eg Basset Hound, Cocker Spaniel), narrow ear canals(eg Chow Chow, Shar Pei), or hair in the ear canal(Poodle). The ear structure of these breeds predispose them to bacterial and yeast infection due to poor air circulation within the ears.

Signs of bacterial dog ear infection:

• Ear is red, painful and feels warm
• Ear scratching
• Head shaking
• Smelly ears
• Excessive yellowish or brown ear discharge
• Head tilt to one side

There are 2 main groups of bacteria which cause dog ear infection.
Bacteria of the same Gram type are treated with similar types of antibiotics.

Gram Positive Bacteria
They include Staphylococcus intermedius and Streptococcus spp. These are known as Staphs and Streps, with similar bacteria occurring in human infections.

Gram Negative Bacteria
They are Pseudomonas spp and Proteus spp. Gram negative bacteria tend to be more difficult to treat than gram positive bacteria, as they are more resistant to common antibiotics.

Your veterinarian would be able to diagnose the actual cause of the ear infection and recommend treatment options.

Medication should only be instilled into the ear when the ear drum is intact. Otherwise, it could cause further damage to your dog’s ears.

You might have seen your vet using an otoscope to look into your pet’s ear. The vet is in fact, looking for foreign body, ear mites, and checking the ear drum.

Depending on the severity and the type of bacterial infection, the vet may suggest a combination of ear cleaners, medicated ear drops, oral antibiotics or anti-inflammatory.

Sometimes, it may be necessary to anesthetize the dog to properly clean out the ear canal, or to remove a foreign body from the ear, before applying medication.

A bacterial ear infection can become nasty when left untreated or when treatment is discontinued before a complete recovery. Make sure you follow through the full course of antibiotics. And consult your vet immediately if your dog is not responding to treatment.

For preventative ear care, clean your pet’s ears once a week, with a ear cleaner that has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. Keeping its ears healthy, clean and dry helps to prevent dog ear infection.

Technorati Tags: bacteria, bacterial infection, Dog Ear Infection

Bacterial infection can cause severe damage to a dog’s ear. Here’s a story from Village Soup, about Nuno, a once-stray bloodhound-mastiff mix.

He had surgery to treat a chronic dog ear infection caused by pseudomonas, a flesh-eating bacterium.

In his case, the infected ear did not respond to medication. The entire ear canal has to be removed to stop the pain and infection.

Read about Nuno’s plight here.

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Ear mites are parasites that cause intense irritation to a pet’s ear canal. This often leads to a secondary ear infection by yeast or bacteria.

This silent video shows a magnified view of ear mites and mites eggs found in a sample of cat ear wax.

These same ear mites can also infest your dog.

Ear mites are highly contagious and is passed from pet to pet through direct contact.

Keep these parasites away to prevent dog ear infection.

Embedded Video

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One of the many causes of dog ear infection is ear mites infestation.

Ear mites are parasites. They are too tiny to be seen by the naked eyes. Ear mites are detected by a microscopic examination of a sample of the dog’s ear wax. The ear mite looks like a microscopic tick, and appears as a small white dot.

Ear mites infection is more commonly found in cats. But any furry animal, such as dogs, rabbits, ferrets can aslo get ear mites.

Ear mites are highly contagious, and is passed from pet to pet by direct contact. Sometimes, an adult dog gets the mites when a new kitten or puppy with mites is introduced into the household. The dog can also get ear mites from other furry pets it socializes with.

Ear mites can migrate from inside the ear to the pet’s face, head, feet, or tail.

Here are some symptoms of ear mites infestation:

• Intense scratching or head shaking
• Ear discharge looks like coffee grounds.
• Itchy skin around ears, head, neck
• Ear infection
• Thick crust around outer ear
• Possible crust and scales on neck, rump, and tail

The ear mites have a life span of 8 weeks. They feed on ear wax and skin oils inside the ear. The ear mites also dig tunnels underneath the skin lining of the ear canal. They lay eggs in the tunnels, and these eggs hatches after just 4 days of incubation.

If you can picture thousands of these mites crawling inside the ear and digging into the skin of the ear canal, you would understand why a dog with ear mites scratches and shakes its head vigourously.

The dog feels intense itch and pain. The irritation builds up ear wax and the broken skin in the ear resutls in secondary infection by bacteria and yeast.

As with any treatment for dog ear infection, it starts with ear cleaning. The ear must be cleaned so that the medicine can actually come in contact with the diseased skin.
Many over-the-counter products for ear mites consist of insecticide in an oily base. If the ear is already sore and inflamed due to bacteria and yeast infection, the insecticide
oily base treatment would be inadequate.

You need a remedy that can kill the mites, the mite eggs, treat the bacteria and fungal infections, and also reduce the inflammation of the ear.

Consult your veterinarian for an accurate diagnosis of the dog ear infection. Knowing the cause of the infection will help you to make intelligent decisions about its treatment options.

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