# Smelly ears but not ear infection



## puppydogs (Dec 6, 2010)

When my 7 mo old got spayed, I asked them to also check out her ears since she has always had a little bit of brown stuff in there that smelled. (moist ears).

I got charged $30 for them to say it's negative for infection (yet they didn't even bother to clean it - that's a different story!)

Is this normal? Are the products where you put the liquid inside the ears and use cotton to soak it up good? So far I've used dry q-tips to get the junk out.


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## aerolor (May 27, 2011)

I think the brown stuff you see is wax and it does smell a bit, but I don't think it is an unpleasant smell.  The vet should have cleaned her ears while doing the exam (bit lazy I think) but at least there is no infection. You can buy dog ear cleansing drops to use, but I would be very careful with Q-tips and I use my finger with a piece of soft, moistened cotton cloth instead. If you put a few drops of the ear cleanser on the cloth you can get the ears quite clean with your fingers and there is no risk going to far down into the ear. Also with a lint free cloth you are not leaving any fluff behind when cleaning. My dogs love having their ears cleaned this way. :wavey:


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## LifeOfRiley (Nov 2, 2007)

Have you noticed her shaking her head a lot, or scratching at her ears?
I think a _little_ bit of debris in the ears, occasionally, might not be anything to worry about. Especially if it just smells like normal ear wax. But if there's an ongoing, decent amount in there and it smells "bad", I'd want to find out what's causing it.

Riley never had that problem until recently. I asked our vet to take a look at them last week when he was in there. I had just cleaned them two days before and he said the same thing - no infection, but they were a little "gunky" and it looked like there was some slight inflammation in there.
He immediately said "allergy" - could be food/could be environmental. He suspected food. 
We were switching foods anyway, so we'll see if that has any effect.


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## Willow52 (Aug 14, 2009)

When Hank was little I bought some ear wipes at Petsmart. He usually has clean ears, but I have them on hand to use if necessary. Some dogs, just like people, have more ear wax than others.


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## iansgran (May 29, 2010)

Especially when it is humid their ears can get yeasty. The best way to clean is to use something like a cotton ball with a little listerine (the gold kind) or rubbing alcohol and clean them with that. Be sure you are just wiping the outside, don't go inside the ear, like with a qtip. This is very common in floopy eared dogs. Unless there is a lot of head shaking you shouldn't worry. If you have the dog groomed by a good groomer they will usually do this. My former vet showed me how with the cotton ball and alcohol, but don't use alcohol if you suspect there might be a cut because it will sting and then you will have a tough time getting near their ears again.


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## puppydogs (Dec 6, 2010)

LifeOfRiley said:


> Have you noticed her shaking her head a lot, or scratching at her ears?
> I think a _little_ bit of debris in the ears, occasionally, might not be anything to worry about. Especially if it just smells like normal ear wax. But if there's an ongoing, decent amount in there and it smells "bad", I'd want to find out what's causing it.
> 
> Riley never had that problem until recently. I asked our vet to take a look at them last week when he was in there. I had just cleaned them two days before and he said the same thing - no infection, but they were a little "gunky" and it looked like there was some slight inflammation in there.
> ...


What food are you switching from/to? I'll definitely look into cleaning with cotton balls!


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## Brandiann (Jul 24, 2011)

Lola has GROSS ears.. luckily my vet cleans and checks them free whenever she goes.. a groomer I know told me to carefully trim the hair that blocks the canal for better air flow.. still have to clean them constantly.. but it did help a bit.


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## LDGrillo (Dec 20, 2010)

I've used the half amber Listerine/half water solution on Starla's ears when they seemed a little irritated. Maybe give it a try on your dog. Just put it on a cotton ball and rub it in the ear, not into the canal though. THey wll shake their head after, and maybe rub it on the floor, but the small of the solution may combat your dogs odor.


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## LifeOfRiley (Nov 2, 2007)

puppydogs said:


> What food are you switching from/to? I'll definitely look into cleaning with cotton balls!


We're switching back to Fromm (whitefish & potato, since he needs to lose weight) from Eukanuba.
He never had trouble with his ears when he was on Fromm. I don't know if the two are directly connected or if it's just a coincidence, but the vet thought it would be a good place to start.


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