Tojo's ears
Ear troubles don't seem to be too common in spitz dogs, but Tojo's ears seem to bug him from time to time. The regular vet-prescribed stuff doesn't seem to do anything but irritate him (we've tried ear mite drops, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial stuff, regular cleaning). The only thing that seems to help is blue power solution and making sure he doesn't eat anything out of the ordinary. For instance, I had to feed crap dog food once when I ran out of the good stuff and couldn't get to anywhere but Wal-Mart, and his ears bugged him. Also, his ears are bugging him right now and I think it's because I was making bulk waffles for the freezer and I let him eat a bunch of waffle batter.
So, does anyone else's dog have ear troubles? What do you do about them?
So, does anyone else's dog have ear troubles? What do you do about them?
Comments
It could be allergies or it could be something else.
A little ADD for a moment, but there was this girl who complained of an ear ache, so her mother took her to the doctor. When the doctor took a peek in, he saw a blockage. When he extracted it, instead of being just a ball of ear wax, it was a small bean that had sprouted with a leaf or two.
Vets will tell you that a food allergy doesnt manifest in the ears alone, that theres also chewing on feet and other symptoms, but I believe that the wheat allergy was filling the bottom of the bucket and the environmental pollens put her over the top.
Actually, Reilly has had only one ear infection since the diet change- I had gotten water in her ear doing a bath and did not put drops in to dry it out. Vet says he typically sees ear infections 10 days- two weeks after baths in dogs if the ears get water in them.
Allergies, eh? That might explain why he didn't do it before we moved to the country. We have a lot of pollen and such! In the city it was all mowed lawns and sidewalks.
I just want to relate a short story about neighbors who asked me to care for their golden ret. while they went away overnight. He is known to have allergies, so they give him claritin, but they still feed him purina dog chow. This is why - if you determine it IS allergies, and the reason I am speaking about it so much is how you noticed it when you had to feed him different food, moved to the country- this is why you have to lower the allergy bucket, not just treat the symptom with anithistamines. When I went up to see him, the fur coming out of one ear was caked with the brown waxy crud. He is a chronic head shaker. I don;t really know how they fail to notice this and do something to help him. I went home and got my ear cleaning fluid and flushed him out good, and when I rubbed the cotton ball inside his ear he leaned into my leg and just groaned with relief. I cleaned him up and took him out for some ball time. When I fed him his PDC, he looked at me is if to say, Oh, Come ON...so the next time I came back to see him, I brought some Blue Buffalo (no wheat no corn) and he had thrown his PDC all over the place. He ate the BB, and of course one weekend is not enough to relieve him. My point is I believe the dog KNOWS his food is part of the problem, but no one is listening. I have spoken with his owners in the past about better food and fish oil, but I think poor puppers is low on the list of priorities- they are busy family with 7 children and this has been going on so long I think it must seem normal to them. This time I left them the ear fluid, and suggested they get him to his vet Mon morning. I dont know if they did.
I think you could be right on about the food!
Anecdotally, 2 of my Shibas seem to develop sudden "ear problems" when they are faced with certain things they don't really enjoy. Ike suddenly gets dropped ears which are myseriously very itchy and require lots of head shaking and scratching ONLY when I get out Beebe's coin rattle bottle (the distraction tool). He hates it and acts like he's sick whenever I use it so I top shelve it a lot. Alona does the true Shiba Shake when ever she gets antsy just before a show, especially if wearing certain collars/chokers.
Do you have a bunch of foxtails or other grassy awns in your area? Those pesky buggers can really migrate. Many dogs can end up with chronic irritation without the classic 'ear infection' goop with a foxtail in their ear.
http://petconnection.com/articles.php?action=detail&id=3308
Toby has been doing this a TON lately. I put some dog ear cleaner dropped in his ears, and I ended up with bleeding arms because Toby hated it so much and screamed like he was being killed.
I wasn't quite sure why he was doing the head shaking.
He'll shake his head and then twitch his ears. Some days he almost seems completely fine and other days it just seems to bug him.
Our last foster, Henson, though being at a shelter for 4 months prior to coming to our home, was covered in foxtails and had ear infections. Its worth checking into. Though it could be some sort of food thing, too. Whenever Tsuki experiences a reaction or sensitivity to food, her ears are always the first to be inflamed.
Steph - it's the same with Tojo; he acts fine most of the time, then he'll suddenly start acting like his ears bug him. It's really weird.