My puppy keeps scratching her ear.?

Question

I have a 7-8 month old Cocker Spaniel puppy who keeps scratching at her ear. She had been doing it often now and it is starting to turn red. I have also noticed that her ear has a slight rancid smell. I know they are prone to ear infections but maybe her ear is just ichy?

Answer 1

Sounds like the vet needs to check it out. The smell could mean infection. Better to be safe. All the best;^)

Answer 2

How will I know if my pet has an ear infection?
When an infection starts, a pet will shake its head occasionally and will scratch its ear. This will often progress to the stage where the pet is obviously distressed. It may moan as it tries to scratch its ear. It will rub its head along the ground and may walk with its head at an angle.

If you examine the ear, you will notice that the ears have a pungent smell. You may also see some discharge in the ear, especially in the ear canal. This discharge may be brown in colour, it may be yellow and look like pus, or it may contain blood - not something to ignore.

An insect called an ear mite sometimes causes ear infections. These small creepy-crawlies move around inside the ear canal and cause great discomfort. The ears of the dog or cat react to this irritation by pumping out a waxy discharge. This gunk is an ideal soup for bacteria, yeasts and fungi to grow in, further worsening the problem.


What can I do at home?
If the problem is caught early enough, then home treatment may be useful, especially if ear mites are the cause. Ask your vet for a good ear cleaning solution that also contains a compound to kill the mites. These preparations contain compounds to dissolve the wax, to reduce bacterial infection and to kill the mites that are present. Put the medication into each ear twice daily or as indicated.

Be careful when cleaning your pet’s ears. The old rule of ‘putting nothing smaller than your elbow’ in your pet’s ear is still a wise one. Many owners will attempt to clean their pets’ ears by using cotton buds. Buds will often ramrod the wax down onto the eardrum. This makes it much more difficult to eliminate the infection, and may lead to a rupture of the eardrum.

To clean the outer part of the ear, a cotton ball, not a bud, moistened with an ear cleaning solution will do well. Only clean the area of the ears that you can see.

For poodles and other animals with hairy ear canals, plucking of the hairs from the ear canals may be necessary to allow proper ventilation. Animals with long, heavy, droopy ears, such as Basset Hounds, need their ears examined regularly. The weight of their ears prevents natural airing and drying of the ear canals.

Answer 3

Cocker Spaniels are prone to ear troubles because of the long hair in and near the ears but the vet can give you suggestions and medicines to help. This is normal for the breed. If the dog has ear mites, inside the ear will be a dark red color and the vet also has an easy treatment for that.

Answer 4

Ear mites and yeast infections have just about the same symptoms. Only your vet can tell you for sure. Maybe you can just keep his ears a little cleaner (more than once a week) and take him to the vet as soon as you can. That dark waxy buildup can be a tell tell sign, and not to sound too gross but do his ears smell kind of bad?

Answer 5

No, she probably has an infection, and that takes antibiotics to cure. Go to the vet for some meds. Imagine if your ear itched so much that it turned red from scratching. Long-eared dogs like Cockers are prone to infection because their ears don't allow them to dry out, so get used to it. My vet gave me a recipe to mix up that will keep her ear canal acidic which helps prevent infection and clean out debris, but it will not cure an infection.

Answer 6

Dogs with "floppy" ears tend to get a slight infection due to moisture. If you contact the Vet, ask for a product called OtoMax or whatever your Vet uses. Also, I was instructed to give my dog 1/2 (half) of a Benadryl to help the itchy feeling. This will also help her sleep. It is nothing to be nervous about, as it is very common; but you have to keep it cleaned. To clean it, you will also have to get Ear Wash (at WalMart or Petco) & use cotton swabs to get the ear clean. Once you do this for her she will stop scratching so much.

Answer 7

My dog had the same problem. He's a Jack Russell Terrier. We took him to the vet. They said that he had an ear infection. Cuz when we take him out for a walk, he goes into the bushes and there is a kind of bug that goes into to his ear and that causes the infection. They performed a small operation and they cleaned my dogs ear. Maybe you should go to the vet. and ask...

Good-luck =)

Answer 8

She prob. has a yeast in her ears my cocker gets them all the time, you are going to need to go to the vet they will give you some medicated cleanser, and an ear medication, if it is really bad antibiotics. Do not ignore it, I did that and ended up with a huge vet bill and having to go back to the vet over and over because her ear canals were so swollen they couldnt see her ear drum in one ear, (I sound like a horrible pet owner right now) but I learned my lesson. Also, my cocker hates the medicated ear cleanser so they gave me another one with out medication in it. You need to clean her ears out atleast every other day or the infections are going to be chronic... good luck!

Answer 9

I think your puppy has ear mites and you should take her to the vet. Usually they give you something like a liquid to put in her ears and it clears up rather quickly. Good Luck!

Answer 10

Did you ever hear of ear mites? Cocker's get them a lot because their ears hang low and get wet a lot. You have to get the medicine at the vet's office, When it smells that a sign ! My mom had many cockers. Good luck to you.

Answer 11

If it smells, it's most likely infected. This may or may not be due to ear mites. Either way, she needs to be checked out by a vet.