How can you keep your dog away from ear infections?

Ever caught your dog obsessively scratching at their ears or seemingly uncontrollably shaking their head? While they could just be playing around, it’s still important for you to check it out for yourself ensuring they don’t have any uninvited infections. Ear infections are never very far off when you have a long-eared dog or even if they spend a lot of time with water. So how can you help your dog avoid these horrendous ear infections and help them fight against it if they do catch it?

Identify the infection:

Aside from your dog scratching, pawing, or shaking his head, there are a few other symptoms that can help you determine whether your dog has an ear infection or not. These are some other symptoms that might surface in light of ear infections:

• Redness of the ear canal
• Swelling
• Discharge coming from the ear

To cure an infection is important, but to be able to prevent it from happening in the first place is the biggest victory. Here’s how you do it.

Preventing the infection:

Keeping their ears dry: Infection causing bacteria to thrive in warm and moist environments. So to give these germs a rough time surviving, keeping your pup’s ears clean and dry is a great start.

Consider plucking ear hair: If a dog has healthy ears and has not had infections, plucking ear hair isn’t needed. However, if a dog with very hairy canals keeps getting ear infections then it can help to keep the canals free of hair.

Nutritional supplements: A malfunctioning immune system can make your dog more prone to infections, so maintaining balance is essential. Giving your dog a regular dose of vitamin C will reduce future chances of them getting infected.

If your dog has somehow managed to develop an ear infection, don’t panic. Here are a few things you should do to bring relief to your dog.

Rid the infection:

The vinegar remedy: Spray a mixture of water and apple cider vinegar in the infected area. The vinegar acts as an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory to alleviate the pain and discomfort your dog is experiencing.

Warm compress: Apply a warm compress to the ear several times a day. The compress alleviates the pain and inflammation caused by the ear infection.