My Dog Has A Severe Ear Itch. Any Home Remedies?
For the last week or so, my dog seems to be constantly digging at his ear. We checked his ear and it isn’t bleeding, there are no sores or bugs, but it is pretty red inside. He is a sheltie/retriever mix with regular floppy dog ears. Is there something I can use at home to help with his itching? I figured a peroxide flush would irritate him or even hurt, and I definitely don’t want to hurt him. I have used cortizone cream on dogs before, but only for external itching. Is there something safe I can use inside his ear?
I have no problem with calling my vet, but of course I’m hoping to save the cost of a vet visit.
Sounds like an ear infection. My Cocker Spaniel gets them often and her ears get red inside and she scratches them so much. Ear infections are common in dogs with floppy ears because the moisture gets trapped inside of their ear due to no air flow. Only a vet can diagnose that. The medicine itself is cheap, but the office visit may be expensive. Don’t put anything inside of his ear, it may hurt him.
Sounds like an ear infection. Antibiotics and/or ointment from the vet should clear it up. I wouldn’t recommend any home/human products. Would you start putting random stuff in your ear, or would you see a doc?
Homemade, natural, Ear mite treatment suggestion:
Step 1: Make a mixture of 1/2 ounce of almond or olive oil and 400 IU vitamin E in a dropper bottle. Warm to body temperature and put about 1/2 dropperful in the ear, massaging the ear canal well for a minute or so. Let your pet shake its head and then gently clean out the opening with cotton swabs. Q-tip type applicators many times compact material already in the ear canal. Apply the oil every other day for six days. Then let the ears rest for 3 days. (The oil mixture will smother many of the mites and start a healing process.)
Step 2: Using Yellow Dock Root Extract, dilute it with water, 9 drops to 1 Tblsp of water. Treat the ears with this mixture, as described above, once every 3 days for 6 weeks. Ear mite eggs are quite resistant to just about anything after they have already hardened, that is why a 6 week period of treatment is recommended. The eggs will continue to hatch out in cycles and if medicine is present for 6 continuous weeks (medicine administered will last for four days) there will be no more eggs present.
You may need to thoroughly shampoo the head and ears (and the tip of the tail), because the mites can leave the ears; they do like to go for night trips to check out the terrain. and might crawl back in after treatment. The tip of the tail may have a few mites from when it is curled near the head. Make a tea infusion of Yellow Dock and use it as a final rinse.
Generally a healthy animal will have less problems with ear mites, so improving the diet will help in both prevention and recovery. Feeding a natural raw meat diet or a super-concentrated, preservative free commercial diet like PHD will improve overall health and reduce the likelihood of frequent parasitic infections. Supplementing with garlic and brewer’s yeast is especially helpful.
This will take at least 6 weeks for them to completely go away, but it works….all this you can find at a natural drug store for cheap…hope this helps
Look a dog is a RESPONSABILITY and such have a COST so please don’t be cheap and take your dog to the vet ASAP!!!
Order some Zymox Otic, without the cortisone-
it’s a wonderful product, just glycerine with some enzymes and zinc – and clears up itchy ears over night. It’s about $13 a bottle, but you only use a few drops, and really, it works so well it’s worth it!
Ear infection. You can try getting a dog ear washing solution from the pet styore, and washing dogs ears out a couple times a day for a week or so.
If there is no progress, you can try this product. It worked for my flop eared dog, when the doctors antibiotics and oinment did not. It is called Zymox Otic with hydrocortizone. Label says to give it once a day for 7-14 days, but I found out that a couple of vets have started using this stuff for antibiotic resistant ear infections, and use it 3 times a day for the first 4 days, slacking off to once a day for another 10 days. That’s what I did for my dog, and it worked. You can’t use any ear cleaner in conjunction with this product, because it will counteract with it.
This product worked for my dog when vet visits and instructions did not. Here is a link to it, and good luck to you: I heartily recommend reading all the user reviews before using the product. It is helpful.http://www.amazon.com/Zymox-Otic-1-0%25-…
Does your dog’s ear has that funky smell like smelly feet? If so, it’s infected with bacteria, and the best you can do for your dog is take it to the vet. Maybe since you’re not certain, you should be take your dog to the vet to be safe. If it gets worst, it can messed up its hearing. Poking or trying to clean it can just make it worst by making the infection deeper. The worst it gets, the more expensive to cure it.
My dog had a similar problem. What I had to do was use Q-Tips dipped in hydrogen peroxide to clean out the mess. It took several Q-tips, but doggie didn’t mind and it didn’t hurt her. Then, I had to use prescription ointment from the vet to kill ear mites.
I looked at Petsmart for you, but I couldn’t find any over the counter stuff for ear mites, so I suspect you may have to ante up for at least one vet visit. But the most important thing, according to my vet, was to get the crud cleaned out so that the medicine could work.
sounds like a yeast infection, unfortunately, the vet can only give you antibotics
Maybe an infection that’ll need an antibiotic. That means…..yeah vet visit. I know what ya mean. I can’t get outta my vet’s office without my credit card burning but I want what’s best for my dog and I’m sure u do too. You wouldn’t want to walk around with an itch in your ear for over a week, would ya?