# Could it be an ear infection?



## maureen_mickel (Jul 17, 2011)

Hello! I just noticed a few days ago that my 9 week old puppy was scratching frequently at her ear and whimpered whenever she did so. But when i rubbed her ear she didnt whine or whimper at all. There is also some gunk in her ears, i will try to get a picture if possible it kinda a brownish red color. Im am deeply worried about her and i am going to call the vet as soon as i can of coarse! I just want to know what other people think, 9 weeks is pretty early to have an ear infection so idk what would cause it. Could it have been her food? I was using Eukanuba german shepherd food could that cause it?


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## BowWowMeow (May 7, 2007)

I am not a fan of any Eukanuba food. It's overpriced and doesn't have particularly good ingredients. 

And, yes, that definitely sounds like an ear infection. You will need to go to the vet to see if it's bacterial, yeast or ear mites. If you want to give her some relief today you can flush your puppy's ear out to clean it. Google it and you'll see video's with vets showing you how to do it.


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## maureen_mickel (Jul 17, 2011)

BowWowMeow said:


> I am not a fan of any Eukanuba food. It's overpriced and doesn't have particularly good ingredients.
> 
> And, yes, that definitely sounds like an ear infection. You will need to go to the vet to see if it's bacterial, yeast or ear mites. If you want to give her some relief today you can flush your puppy's ear out to clean it. Google it and you'll see video's with vets showing you how to do it.


We just stop purchaseing it and switched to all natural dog foods :]

Thank you! it sounded like one to me too. I was gonna flush her ear out with vinegar and water but i was too afraid to do it x| i feel like i will just make it worse


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## kr16 (Apr 30, 2011)

A yeast infection smells pretty bad in the ear take a wiff


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I don't mess with ears. I would never advise putting anything in their ears (or yours!) since you don't know if there has been a rupture of an eardrum or something else going on in there. I"m to paranoid about what damage I could do. Take her to the vet and they'll be able to help you.


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## BowWowMeow (May 7, 2007)

I have a million years experience with flushing out cat and dog ears and dealing with all kinds of ear infections so I am comfortable with it but it's not a substitution for going to the vet to find out what kind of infection she has. 

Glad you are switching off of the Eukanuba.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

If you're taking her to the vet, don't clean her ears right before--they need the gunk and odor to help determine whether the infection is yeast or bacterial. It's important to know this because if you use the wrong medication, the infection will worsen.

If it will be a while before you can see the vet, you might want to clean out the gunk to give her some relief. There are ear cleaning solutions you can buy at the pet/feed store, or you can use a mixture of rubbing alcohol and vinegar--this hits both bacteria and yeast. 

Put a few drops of solution into the ear, massage the base of the ear well, then wipe out the gunk with a clean cloth, cotton ball, or swab. Use a little more solution if you need to. DON'T stick a cotton swab any deeper than you can see.


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## e.rigby (May 28, 2011)

Typically gunky brown = bacteria infection; black = mites, and crusty light brown = yeast. (IME)

However, a vet needs to examine the ears and inspect the gunk under a microscope  plus, the ear rinse you get at the vet is typically better than the kind you can buy in petstores.


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## Germanshepherdlova (Apr 16, 2011)

Sounds like an ear infection, is her ear red inside?


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