Cleaning your dog’s ears should be part of the regular hygiene routine to promote your pet’s health and prevent infections. For some dogs, especially the ones with floppy ears, this might mean a clean up every week, while for others once a month is enough. To determine this, just check in once a week to see if there is a buildup of wax or dirt in your dog’s ears, and clean as needed. If you are wondering why this is so important, let’s look at the top 5 reasons to keep your dog’s ears clean.
"I might not love ear cleaning, but I know you have many reasons to clean my ears!"
1. Prevent Infections
One of the main benefits of regularly cleaning your dog’s ears is to prevent dog ear infections. These can be extremely painful for your pet, so your best bet is to avoid them. The dirt and excess wax build up create the perfect feeding ground for infection-causing bacteria and yeast. Additionally, it’s harder for infection treatments to penetrate the inner ear if there is too much wax. With regular cleaning and use of EcoEars, you should be able to prevent bacterial ear infections and promote faster recovery if your pet does get one.
2. Remove Weeds and Organic Matter
If your dog loves playing outside, rolling in the grass, running in the woods, or playing in the sand, then it’s important to check his ears for dirt. Small twigs, weeds, and other plants can get lodged in the ear while your pet is having fun. Check for these weekly and pull them out. If not cleaned out on regular basis, plants and weeds can work their way down the ear canal, posing serious health-threats.
If your dog loves playing outdoors, check their ears for weeds and twigs.
3. Get Rid of Ear Mites
Ear mites are highly contagious and annoying parasites that like to make themselves at home in dogs’ and other animals’ ears. These creatures feed on ear wax and oils and in severe cases, can lead to ear infections. While they are nearly invisible to the naked eye, regular cleaning with antibacterial products like EcoEars from Vet Organics, should get rid of them. One way to check for ear mites is to take a small sample of your dog’s ear wax and spread it on a piece of paper. If you see small white specks in the ear wax, then your dog probably has some unfriendly visitors. In this case, increase the number of times you clean out your dog’s ears until the white specks are gone.
4. Maintain Healthy Bacteria Balance
Be careful not to clean your dog’s ears too frequently. Healthy bacteria also live in the ears and help to fight off yeast and other organisms that might compromise the well-being of your dog’s ears. Too much cleaning kills these bacteria, taking away the natural line of defense from ear infections. If you pet is healthy, don’t clean her ears more than once a week to give good bacteria enough time to re-establish and multiply before the next clean.
"Please don't clean my ears too often - I need all the healthy bacteria I can get!"
5. Keep Your Dog’s Ears Clean
If for no other reason, clean your dog’s ears for hygiene. The wax produced in the ear acts as a net that catches all the dirt, twigs, and even dust. If not regularly cleaned, the dirt forms a hard coat of ear wax and could easily result in a plethora of dog ear problems including ear mites and bacterial infections. By cleaning regularly, you ensure that the buildup of dirt is not significant and hence much easier to remove and clean. If done properly and without causing distress to the dog, ear cleaning can be a great way to mitigate the chances of canine ear infection and at the same time allow for some bonding time with your dog. Plus, if there is an infection or other problems, then you will be able to catch them before your pet suffers too much pain.