# Symptoms of Ear Infection



## Cheerful1 (Sep 27, 2011)

Lately when Joey gets up in the morning, I can hear him shake his head and body as if he was wet and shaking himself off. He's not whimpering in pain or anything like that. There's no smell either.

He'll shake once in a while during the day.

Don't know if he's having a problem with his ears.

How do I check his ears to see if he has any problems?


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## qbchottu (Jul 10, 2011)

Here's a really good article on checking ears and what the signs of infection are Examining and Medicating the Ears of a Dog


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## N Smith (Aug 25, 2011)

Get a flashlight and get as good a look as you can inside his ears.

If there is an issue, you will see redness, discharge, sometimes swelling, they can start to walk with their head tilted to the side, and can scratch their ear alot.

If its ear mites, you will see black "coffee grind", type caking in your dogs ears. You can pick up a mite oil at your vets office or at a local feed store. Just make sure you follow the instructions and repeat the process 14 days later to kill the hatched eggs.

But if he is just shaking randomly, then that is more of a normal dog thing. 

If you are unsure, you can have a vet check his ears for you. As a word of caution though, if the ears are healthy, pink and fine, LEAVE THEM ALONE - do not be tempted to let the vet or yourself clean them.


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## Cheerful1 (Sep 27, 2011)

Thanks; I'll check it out.

He has a checkup scheduled for February, so hopefully I can wait until then.

Ears are something I don't want to mess around with.


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

Cheerful1 said:


> How do I check his ears to see if he has any problems?


Get a small flashlight and look as far down into the ear as you can. Do you see any dirt or gunk? The ear canal should be pink and reasonably free of dirt and wax. If you can't see or smell anything, try swiping a cotton ball as far down into his ear that you can see. The cotton ball should come out pretty clean. if you see anything brown, black, or red, or if you smell something, go to the vet and have them check it out.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

BTW, not to say he does or doesn't have ear issues, but dogs shake themselves 2-3 x a day normally.
Especially upon waking. Often they stretch then shake off.


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## casualnova (Sep 22, 2012)

My three year old GS female has recently developed an ear infection with all the signs and symptoms described by many others (frequent ear scratching, head shaking, foul odour and abundant debris. Nothing helped much, including a course of oral antibiotics. The definitive solution finally came from observation. To make a long story short, GS dogs, as many other dog breeds, I presume, have a very deep pocket at the bottom of their ears where all kinds of things can accumulate, including foreign objects, wax, supurative material and, of course, medicines. It is even hard to describe how much nasty stuff I was able to scoop initially out of that pocket with cotton swaps. But after four days of twice a day ear cleansing and applying a triple antibiotic ointment into the pocket and all other reddened areas, the infection has finally cleared. Which makes me to hypothesize that many so called 'chronic ear infections' are due to a failure to properly get all infected debris out of that pocket and other difficult to reach folds of the ear. The key is to always work with the cotton swaps from the top down and along the external ear wall to avoid getting near to the ear canal, which seats on the internal side of the ear and cannot be entered unless you operate the cotton swap horizontally instead of vertically.


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