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Cleaning ears

Buster

Well-known member
Zola had a pretty nasty ear infection a couple of months back and since then I've been keeping a close eye on her ears. I was wondering, do any of you clean inside your cav's ears and if so what do you use?
 
I use Epi-Otic solution I buy it from the Vets and you squirt it into their ears and massage it around then push in a small plug of cotton wool to absorb the fluid. It smells lovely too.
 
I use Thornit.

Fantastic product comes like fine white powder, you only need a tiny pinch into the ear, rub it all around....fab, do it as part of a routine once a month. Never had a problem with ears. Not made from any chemicals etc, you can find it on Ebay easily. not sold through a regular vet although an alternative vet would proberbly stock it.

Thornit powder.

Alison, wilts, U.K.
 
I use bay oil with aloe vera and camomile once a week and you could eat of of merlin's ears! No sign of mushroom farms in their at all!
 
I use very soft cloth wich I wet in warm water and stroke gentle the dirt away from the ears.
 
I use the opti one as well , my blenheim Nifa never needs her ears cleaned but Heidi the tricolor about 3 times a week .
Mimi
 
How Often Do you clean their ears?

I was told to do it once a week and use epi-otic as well from the vet. Recently though Ginger has begun freakin out after the cleaning.....any ideas? She retreats to her crate and seems to be mad at us afterwards.... :(
 
I use the R-7 Step 1,2,3 for King....first a powder to dry the canal for hair removal, second a liquid to clean the canal of wax, third a cream for keeping the canal dry...
 
Re: How Often Do you clean their ears?

gingersmom said:
I was told to do it once a week and use epi-otic as well from the vet. Recently though Ginger has begun freakin out after the cleaning.....any ideas? She retreats to her crate and seems to be mad at us afterwards.... :(

That sounds like a lot of cleaning. India's ears were waxy, and the vet said to use the epi-otic 2-3 times the first week, then use it once every few weeks.

I would have the vet recheck her ears, and also show the vet how you clean them in case you are unintentionally doing something that makes her uncomfortable :flwr:
 
Recently though Ginger has begun freakin out after the cleaning.....any ideas? She retreats to her crate and seems to be mad at us afterwards....

I'd be wondering if either she has some infection or other problem with her ears that is making this painful? You might ask your vet to have a look.

Are you putting too much in, maybe need to be more gentle in the cleaning process? Or maybe she has just decided she really hates this process. You can make it more pleasant by having small and tasty food rewards for her and lots of praise for tolerating this cleaning. If it is really sitressing and there's no real call for cleaning her ears I wouldn;t bother cleaning them myself.

For what it's worth, I never, ever clean Jaspar or Leo's ears. They swim regularly, too. In two and a half years, Jaspar has had one ear infection and that's it. I tend to not like doing things that don't seem to need doing, and that would include ear cleaning unless there seems to be a reason for it (eg a cavalier gets regular ear infections or always has lots of wax).

As with humans cleaning the wrong way could be packing wax painfully further in to the ear canal so a vet's advice on how to clean is a good idea.

Cavalier ears are like an L, the canal drops down then has a dog leg (if you'll excuse the term) inwards. The part that turns in makes a nice dark moist place for infections etc and also means improper cleaning can force debris down the long part of the L and into that dogleg.
 
I had tried something once that you dripped into the dog's ears and then rubbed their ears. Jake hated it!! He ran around like a mad man for a minute and then threw himself into my lapping shaking. No more! I want both of mine to enjoy their grooming (and they do....Shelby will start to nudge her way into my lap before I'm finished with Jake because she wants to be next). So, now I put ear-optic on a cotton pad and just wipe the leather and gently at the opening.
 
Woody loves having his ears cleaned - great excuse to run around the room and the dive on the floor wiping each side of his ears...
 
I do like Cathy...after his bath I put Epi-Otic on a cotton ball or pad and wipe around he openeing. I used to use Thornit after every bath but stopped since his ears are always clean and he doesn't seem to need anything done to them. So far he's always had perfect ears and so I don't do much of anything except a visual inspection and a quick snifff of them every time he gets a brushing. I've gotten so used to the way they look and smell that I would now right away if anything was amiss.
 
Thanks

Thank you all for your valuable suggestions. I think I may just put it on a pad and wipe her ear out instead of doing the drops in her ear and see how that goes, and maybe do it 2x a month instead of 4. Im going to see the vet at the end of this month and ask him to see if theres anything abnormal in her ears that might be bothering her which would cause it. Thanks Again!
 
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