Having a dog at home is always exciting, however, when your dog is sick, it won’t be fun. Some diseases and infections can be experienced by your dogs. You can check some of the dog diseases in rainy seasons disease that might attack your dog.

One of the most common health problems that dogs have is ear infections. Your dog’s ear tends to have problem as it is easily moist when it comes to bathing, swimming or grooming time.

The moisture stimulates the microorganisms to grow in your dog’s ear canal. That’s why it is important to have regular check of your dog’s ears.

However, moist is not the only causes of dog’s ear infection. There are some other causes that you need to understand, such as allergy, environment condition, dust mites, molds or food and also fleas.

If your dog has ear infections, there are some symptoms or signs you can observe, such as unpleasant odor of the ears, redness, swelling, excessive discharge, and consistent scratching or shaking at their ears or hanging their head low to one side.

After getting to know the symptoms, then let’s take a deep understanding to each of the causes of dog’s ear infection.

Moist

Just as mentioned before, moist mostly becomes the root of dog’s ear infection. After you have your dog finish bathing, swimming or grooming, you need to make sure that his ears are dry, not wet or moist anymore.

If you have an active dog who loves water so much, you really need to pay attention to this. This will help to prevent redness, offensive smells or even discharge.

Allergies

This is the most common cause of dog’s ear infections. When your dog is allergic to something, such as food, his ear canals will be inflamed. When the ear canals are inflamed, then the excessive production of wax inside will happen. Ear infection might be one of the signs your dog has food allergies and you can handle it by having these allergies relief for dogs.

Ear Mites

These small creatures are also the most common problems in causing dog’s ear infection. They can be passed from one dog to another dogs. You can spot these ear mites easily in the ears. Fortunately, ear mites are quite easy to be treated. You just need to pay attention and do regular checking if your dog likes to “socialize” with other dogs.

Bacteria and Yeast

These are also common causes of dog’s ear infections. They usually appear after the ears get inflammation. If you see that your dog’s ears are inflamed, then you’d better go to your vet to get effective treatment.

Grass Seeds

The cause of grass seeds causing ear infection in dogs mostly happen during summer and spring. If your dog likes to explore grass, then be aware of the grass seeds.

Grass seeds are able to migrate down your dog’s ear canal and irritate it. Once you find that grass seeds are the causes, then bring your dog to the vet so your vet is able to remove them immediately.

Excessive Ear Cleaning

Having your dog’s ears cleaned is good, but excessive of it will not be. Healthy ears don’t need to be cleaned. Pay attention to this: if your dog’s ear has a little wax in it, then leave it.

That’s still considered normal. If your dog doesn’t feel comfortable of having his ears cleaned, then don’t. Too much cleaning can lead to irritation and inflammation that makes the condition is worse.

If you need to clean the ears, then you can wipe them by using organic witch hazel and apply it on a cotton ball or pad.

How to Treat Dog’s Ear Infections

After knowing the causes of dog’s ear infections, you may be curious on how to treat this problem. There are even some natural remedies you can do at home.

However, before doing these natural remedies, you’d better consult with your vet considering how severe the infection is . Here are some tips on how to treat dog’s ear infections.

Chamomile – you can use this type of tea for treating your dog’s ear infection. You can make chamomile tea and let it cool down. Then, add a few drops to your dog’s ears. Chamomile is believed to have calming effect to your pet and help him sleeping well.
Garlic – it is not safe to be consumed in a large amount, but it is safe for treating infections. We all know how valuable and important garlic is to treat infections. To treat your dog’s ear infection, you can add this to herbal mixture and apply it to your dog’s ears.
Grapefruit seed extract – this is known to be a powerful antioxidant, antiviral and anti-fungal. To treat dog’s ear infection, you can add it to your dog food or apply it directly to clean your dog’s ears.

If you want to know more about dog’s ear infection, please review tips to treat dogs ear infection with monistat and steps to treat dog ear infection with apple cider vinegar. These ways are really effective!