# Ears



## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

Hey everyone!!! My dog has been shaking her head somewhat often lately. I can pet/stroke her with no problem. She allows me to touch and look into her ears, but not without a little wiggling (malinois). Any ideas on how to assess for ear infection and what preventative measures I could use? Thanks in advance for all the tips.


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## Matthew Grubb (Nov 16, 2007)

Take her to the vet... some ear infections can be so deep you won't find anything if you swab the ear. Better to spend on an office visit than pay for a aural hematoma surgery when your dog pop's a vein in her ear... then you end up with a goofy looking Mal with a gimpy ear.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Yeah, your vet can do an ear swab and sometimes bacterial/fungal culture and possibly a skin scrape of the skin around the ear. They can be sedated if necessary to get a good sample.


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## Sue Miller (Jul 21, 2009)

Hey Z! I would take her to the vet--if she has ear mites, they'll spread to all your dogs & you don't want that. If there's a crusty discharge or odor she has an infection or mites. If she tries to avoid you petting her head, there's a problem. Just might be dry skin--in that case try cod liver oil--it works miracles.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

It's actually fairly easy to potentially overdose on cod liver oil because of its high vitamin A content. I think you mean fish oil, Sue?


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

Zakia Days said:


> Hey everyone!!! My dog has been shaking her head somewhat often lately. I can pet/stroke her with no problem. She allows me to touch and look into her ears, but not without a little wiggling (malinois). Any ideas on how to assess for ear infection and what preventative measures I could use? Thanks in advance for all the tips.



All three of my natural eared Dobermanns, liked to shake their heads. I kept looking for ear infections (never found any) I finally decided, they just liked the sound of their ears
flapping ;-0


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## Kyle Sprag (Jan 10, 2008)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> It's actually fairly easy to potentially overdose on cod liver oil because of its high vitamin A content. I think you mean fish oil, Sue?


Do you have any more information on this? From some of the stuff I have read it is quite hard to near imposible to get too much D or A from Cod Liver Caps.


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## Alison Grubb (Nov 18, 2009)

I'd just take her to the vet and have an ear cytology done. Some ear meds followed up by a maintenance cleaner should take car of an ear infection. But like others have said if she keeps shaking her head she could give herself a hematoma...and then their ears just look silly.


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## Sue Miller (Jul 21, 2009)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> It's actually fairly easy to potentially overdose on cod liver oil because of its high vitamin A content. I think you mean fish oil, Sue?


Hi Maren, Four years ago, we rescued a 5-year-old dog. Every winter he starts seriously chewing his feet & itching--enough to hobble him. Over the last 4 years we've spent thousands on tests & they all come up negative. This year, he started loosing all the fur on his legs. So off to the vet where the vet fileted him taking skin scrapings checking for mites & a thyroid test. He was put on steroids & antibiotics as usual & they told us he had allergies as usual. But the itching, limping & hair loss persisted & this time he kept chewing his feet.

I was determined this time to find out myself what was wrong so I read everything I could find on the www. I finally found an article about dogs & lack of sunshine. The article was about dogs that live inside & aren't exposed to much sunlight so they develop a vitamin D deficiency. All the symptoms fit--loss of fur--skin problems. The article recommended cod liver oil (vitamins A & D). We started dosing him & it was like a miracle--he's back to normal, he's not limping & all his fur has grown back. I know that at least vitamin a isn't water soluable but I read studies that state that it's almost impossible to overdose & there's never been an instance of toxic overdosing. Anyway, he's 9 1/2-years-old now & he looks & acts like a puppy so we're happy. PS--we take the dogs out in the early morning & later in the evening so they don't get much sun at all in the winter. 
Here's a pic from yesterday--the ball never leaves his mouth


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## Adi Ibrahimbegovic (Nov 21, 2008)

Head shaking DOES sound like an ear infection, that would be my first guess. A trip to the vet should be in order - just in case. Not knowledgeable on cod liver oil OD to offer any insight.


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## Zakia Days (Mar 13, 2009)

Hi Sue!!! Can't wait to get out there and see the new place and the set up you guys have with the dogs. I am interested in seeing because I'm trying to decide how to set up my home (new or old) with the kennels and spacing of the dogs. Thanks for the insight. I do feed cod liver oil once a month with the meals. I am concerned about vit. A overdose and want to be careful. I may switch to fish body oil as I've heard its safer with similar health results. There is no discharge, dog doesn't scratch (in fact if I scratch ear for the dog she seems to like it), and the ears are not sensitive, no hair missing, etc. I will schedule an appt. with the vet and have a look see. Thank you everyone for the advice. Happy holidays and all that jazz!!!:wink:



Sue Miller said:


> Hi Maren, Four years ago, we rescued a 5-year-old dog. Every winter he starts seriously chewing his feet & itching--enough to hobble him. Over the last 4 years we've spent thousands on tests & they all come up negative. This year, he started loosing all the fur on his legs. So off to the vet where the vet fileted him taking skin scrapings checking for mites & a thyroid test. He was put on steroids & antibiotics as usual & they told us he had allergies as usual. But the itching, limping & hair loss persisted & this time he kept chewing his feet.
> 
> I was determined this time to find out myself what was wrong so I read everything I could find on the www. I finally found an article about dogs & lack of sunshine. The article was about dogs that live inside & aren't exposed to much sunlight so they develop a vitamin D deficiency. All the symptoms fit--loss of fur--skin problems. The article recommended cod liver oil (vitamins A & D). We started dosing him & it was like a miracle--he's back to normal, he's not limping & all his fur has grown back. I know that at least vitamin a isn't water soluable but I read studies that state that it's almost impossible to overdose & there's never been an instance of toxic overdosing. Anyway, he's 9 1/2-years-old now & he looks & acts like a puppy so we're happy. PS--we take the dogs out in the early morning & later in the evening so they don't get much sun at all in the winter.
> Here's a pic from yesterday--the ball never leaves his mouth


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## Ann Schallert (Sep 25, 2007)

A really good product for ears is Halo's Natural Herbal Ear Wash.
I get it from the health food store. It's several herbs in a witch hazel base. I use it routinely in my dogs' ears. They never had a problem.
One time my ear had a really bad itch, about to drive me crazy. I used the dogs' ear wash and had immidiate releif.


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