How to Treat Your Dog's Ear Infection

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Aimee Beger, and I'm a veterinarian, and today, we're going to be talking about ear infections in your dog. Ear infections are typically caused by foreign bodies in the ear, excess water in the ear after bathing or swimming, or bacterial or yeast infections. The ways to determine if your dog has an ear infection or not are to watch for the signs, and the signs are having a malodorous or sweet smelling odor coming from your dog's ear, inflammation, or redness, or swelling of your dog's ear; typically seen at the base of the ear, which is the opening to the ear canal. Other than that, we may see some dark debris, or yellow, or white debris coming out of your dog's ear, and that's something that would require immediate veterinary attention. The way we determine what is the cause of your dog's ear infection is to do something called an ear cytology. And we collect a small amount of debris from your dog's ear, and we put it on a glass slide and we heat it, and then stain it, and look at it under the microscope. And you can actually see bacteria or yeast on the slide, and then, determine what medication to use to treat the ear infection. We do sometimes use steroid injections to bring down any inflammation that your dog may have, so then you can clean and medicate your dog's ear at home. Cleaning is typically done once a day. Medicating is usually done twice a day for a minimum of two to three weeks, and ear re-checks are always recommended at about the two week interval."