Although fleas are starting to subside with the colder weather, it is still important to watch other issues common in dogs.
Ear infections are common as infection loves warm, moist and dark places. It is often more common in dogs that enjoy the water, so make sure you clean their ears after the beach!
As the ears are hidden by fur, its very common to only notice the infection when a smell arrives, which means time for antibiotics!
Very bad infections can cause a dog to hold their head sideways and be off balance, which can be a permanent symptom.
It’s important to regularly clean your dogs ears. The best way is after bath, use a cotton ball and gently wipe a cleaner such as Epi-Otic through the ear canal. This will prevent infection and save you on pesty vets bills!
I have 2 Golden Retrievers. They both sufferred horrendous dog ear yeast infections for well over 2 years. I spent over $3500 on antibiotics and other stuff from the vets and eventually the older dog (Blue) got so ill from over use of antibiotics I was forced to look at more natural remedies. With a combination of advice and a total over haul of their diet, not to mention my own education of how bad mass manufactured dog food is. Since I have had 2 dogs without an ear yeast infection for over 3 years. It’s also important to realise that antibiotics are great for killing bacterial infections but yeast is a fungal infection and like humans they need an antifungal to kill the yeast. I used natural ear remedies and in all honesty they eat better than me. I started telling friends and family with dogs what I’d discovered and they also had the same, excellent results. Since then I wrote a book detailing not just remedies you can use today but how diet is the primary cause of a vast majority of of dog ear yeast infections and how simple it is to change it. A combination of diet, maintaining an environment yeast simply cant survive in genuinely works. Educating people on how diet is such a culprit is paramount. People try to fix the problem quickly where as in reality it’s by and large a reaction to the bad food we give them. Dogs have been changed by mankind and in the process we have totally altered their diet, it’s no wonder they suffer so much from problems like this (pretty amazing a Chihauhau and all dogs are 98% wolf!)
Regards,
Richard.