# Ear cleaning frequency



## KristenC (Sep 20, 2021)

How often do you clean your dogs ears? I ask because Charlotte has been itching her ear a bit in the morning for the past two weeks and shook her head three times yesterday. She also shakes her body a lot and there has been an uptick in this as well. I have been attributing that to her anxiety/ fear/ stress. 

Her ear hair was just pulled and the groomer said her ears look fine. There is no smell or discharge.
I used to clean her ears weekly after baths but now she gets a bath every three weeks. I worry because Charlotte had a 9 week ear infection when she was 4 months old. I don’t want to go down that path again.


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

Molly has had several ear infections. In addition to any scratching or head shaking there has also been a noticeable smell that tipped me off to it. Plucking of the ear hair can cause enough irritation to actually increase the chance of getting an infection so I think it should be done on an “as needed” basis, not routinely. Not every dog has hairy ears either. My groomer keeps the ear hair trimmed around the ear canal opening to help with air circulation. I have only used ear cleaners when advised to by my vet, and usually only after bathing. I have had more success with just being really careful to keep her ears dry when bathing and eliminating chicken from her diet. Allergies can play a part if dogs are getting frequent ear infections. These may be dietary or environmental. These are all good things to discuss with your vet, and ultimately your groomer. Good luck.


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## KristenC (Sep 20, 2021)

Molly120213 said:


> Molly has had several ear infections. In addition to any scratching or head shaking there has also been a noticeable smell that tipped me off to it. Plucking of the ear hair can cause enough irritation to actually increase the chance of getting an infection so I think it should be done on an “as needed” basis, not routinely. Not every dog has hairy ears either. My groomer keeps the ear hair trimmed around the ear canal opening to help with air circulation. I have only used ear cleaners when advised to by my vet, and usually only after bathing. I have had more success with just being really careful to keep her ears dry when bathing and eliminating chicken from her diet. Allergies can play a part if dogs are getting frequent ear infections. These may be dietary or environmental. These are all good things to discuss with your vet, and ultimately your groomer. Good luck.


How often does she get bathed/ ears cleaned?


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## Molly120213 (Jan 22, 2014)

She gets a bath about every two to three weeks or sooner if needed. She sees a groomer every six weeks. I am presently not using an ear cleaner as her ears have been infection free for some time and I just like to leave well enough alone if there are no problems!


KristenC said:


> How often does she get bathed/ ears cleaned?


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Sounds perfect to me! I don't do anything more than check my dog's ears unless there is a problem either!


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## 31818 (Oct 29, 2014)

KristenC said:


> How often do you clean your dogs ears? I ask because Charlotte has been itching her ear a bit in the morning for the past two weeks and shook her head three times yesterday.


Ricky is susceptible to Vet diagnosed environmental allergies. He has no known food allergies. At the advice of Ricky's Vet Dermatologist/Allergist, he has his ears cleaned every time he has a bath which is every two weeks by a professional groomer (yes, I spend about $1,000 per year on professional grooming and supplies). The Vet recommends "EpiOtic" ear cleaner, a non-prescription cleaner/drying agent available on Amazon. The Vet Dermatologist recommends his ears are cleaned right BEFORE his bath (I know this seems counter-intuitive). Technique for massaging the ear cleaner while in the inner ear canal is very important for proper cleaning. The Vet showed me how to do it properly, but there are also videos on Youtube that show the technique.



> She also shakes her body a lot and there has been an uptick in this as well. I have been attributing that to her anxiety/ fear/ stress.


In my opinion, I don't think that shaking the whole body is caused by anxiety/fear/stress for my specific Havanese. Ricky is the one of the most self-confident dogs you will ever meet. He is only rarely intimated by external stimuli. He loves fireworks, loud motorcycles, and strange people. The sound of thunder puts him to sleep!

Ricky frequently shakes his whole body. I have observed him over his 8 years and he does this to fluff up his fur; I imagine to insulate his body whether he is hot or cold. He does not like his hair smoothed close to his body, he wants it fluffy and airy. After I pet and stroke him (which he loves with a happy look on his face), he will immediately shake his hair back to where HE wants it after I quit stroking him. So in my case, I think he is just acting like a bird, to fluff his 'plumage', and exercising his determination to make himself comfortable.



> Her ear hair was just pulled and the groomer said her ears look fine. There is no smell or discharge.
> I used to clean her ears weekly after baths but now she gets a bath every three weeks. I worry because Charlotte had a 9 week ear infection when she was 4 months old. I don’t want to go down that path again.


Ricky is susceptible to ear infections (as a result of his environmental allergies) if I don't keep his ear canals clean. He does not have particularly hairy inner ears (yes, his ear flaps are very hairy typical for the Havanese breed). I don't recall ever having his inner ear hair being plucked. It is just not necessary in his specific case - BUT all Havanese can vary and your case may be different.

If Charlotte's shaking is causing YOU concern, stress, or anxiety, you should discuss this with your VET for his professional diagnosis and recommendations. You can read my write-up about Ricky's visit to a reputable Vet Dermatologist/Allergist, in this thread Here.


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

I never pluck or clean either of my dogs ears. They have never had a problem. Interestingly, I have gone to two new vets in the past couple years. Both of them remarked on how beautiful my dogs ears are which makes me wonder what the typical dog ear looks like!


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

I’m pretty sure our breeder recommended once a week, but I might have done it more often because I lumped it with other things. The vet didn’t seem concerned, as long as they were clean. I think the breeder was cautious and intended it to be more frequent at least in the beginning, as a way to check the ears periodically. I know she had families that didn’t know how to how to care for the ears or wouldn’t get to the groomer super often, and the best way to recognize if there is a problem is to look at them frequently. However, her dogs have hairy ears, and she had a few puppies prone to infections so I suspect she wanted to make sure someone would notice if something was going on. Sundance has not had any problems. I made a point to ask both the groomer and the vet how his ears looked every time he was seen for a long time because I was never very confident I was doing it right. Then I started doing it infrequently, mostly after a bath if I was concerned about water. Eventually I found the same thing as Molly’s mom, that if I was careful about keeping them dry they didn’t seem like they needed to be cleaned. I do clean them if they get wet or after swimming and use the system with the cleaning and drying drops and that’s about it. Even though I asked for a lot of feedback, I never really felt like I had a handle on whether or not it was actually doing anything, maybe because I only had one set of ears to look at. Everyone always says they look clean, and they look clean to me. 

Sundance does have food allergies but I think the first time I heard about the correlationbetween food allergies and ears was back when Charlotte had her infection! Now I’m glad I continued to check his ears often the first year or so since his diet issues were resolved around that time.

Even though she doesn’t have an ear infection now, the fact that she’s itching, and she had that past infection, I would also want to be cautious. Since she potentially has two things going on, it could be easy for anxiety to mask an increase in allergy symptoms or for an increase in allergy symptoms to make her more anxious. With Sundance’s history and the wait times here, any sign of a problem and I’d probably do the mail-in allergy testing while I waited for an appointment with the vet. I think it only tests for food, though, and a vet would end up doing more comprehensive testing anyway, so it might not be worth it.


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