Ear infections can be very uncomfortable for your pet and if left untreated can cause ongoing complications and pain. This is why we recommend you book a visit with the vet as soon as you notice your pets ears are infected.
Common signs your pet may have a ear infection include:
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Itching at ears
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Redness around the ear canal
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Dark brown discharge
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Offensive odour coming from your pets ears
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Your pet is reluctant to let you look at their ears.
When you come to the vet one of our friendly nurses will talk to you and request a history about how your pets overall health has been. The next step is to get a small sample of the discharge in your pet’s ear to look under the microscope. This is done with a cotton swab and then smeared onto a microscope slide. This is so the vet can look at the cells under the microscope to confirm what type of infection is in your pet’s ears so we can treat it with the appropriate medication.
Depending on the type of infection we will be able to offer you different types of medicated drops. This includes twice daily medication or a one off long lasting medicated drop.
We will also offer for the nurses to clean your pets ears if they tolerate this. This allows us to remove all the debris and discharge to help give the medicated drops the best chance of treating the infection. Your pet will also receive a full health examination to ensure they are overall healthy.
We then recommend for you to come in once the medicated drops have finished for the vets to recheck the ears and ensure the infection has resolved. Even if your pets ears look clean and free of discharge we highly recommend revists. This is because even if there is a small amount of infection still present but cannot be seen to the naked eye the infection can start up again. This unfortunately usually results in a revisit a few weeks later and the process of treatment having to be restarted.
Ear infections can be common but if your pet is having reoccuring ear infections we recommend talking to your vet about potential underlying causes.
We recommend keeping your pets ears dry and clean, below is a video with step by step instructions on how to clean your pets ears at home.