The inner ear is a warm closed environment and therefore prone to yeast infections.  Dogs can have either prick or drop ears.  Drop eared dogs tend to struggle more with yeast infections because the ear does not “breathe” easily.  We need to clean the ears and thereafter make sure there is no moisture left in the ear as yeast needs warmth and water to grow.  Yeast infections look brown and ear mite infections look black.

Step 1: Remove the hairs growing inside the ears

Take a pinch of Wampum Ear Powder between your fingers, dust the hairs with the powder until you can easily get a grip on them.  Gently but with a quick action, pull a few hairs at a time out.  I pull only about 5-10 hairs at a time. Separate the hairs and choose the few you want to remove, make sure they are well covered with ear powder, grip them tightly and with a quick action pull them out.  The sensation to the dog should be just an itch of relief.  Continue until the ears are clear of hairs.

Step 2: Remove the wax build-up in the ears

Ear wax protects the ear on the inside but it can become excessive over time especially if you have been using ear ointment from your vet as well.  We need to get the ear clean so it can heal.  To soften the wax build up, please do NOT squirt water/aqueous solutions into the ear.  This will just exacerbate the problem over time.  Use about 3-5 drops of oil, the oil can be baby oil, olive oil or Wampum Coat Oil #2 which is an alkyl benzoate oil with antiseptic properties.  Let the oil soften the wax, and be patient!  Then wipe the ear cavity gently with a cotton wool ball.  I put 3 drops of oil in the ear the night before, and the next morning I gently wipe the ear clean with a cotton wool ball.  If you do this regularly, all the wax in the inner ear canal will bleed to the surface and you will be able to wipe it out easily.

Step 3: Treat the ears for yeast and bacteria

Often,  when dogs have ear problems it is a combination of a bacterial and a yeast infection.  Wampum Ear Powder will absorb any residual water or moisture in the ear so that the yeast/fungus cannot grow and it is also anti-bacterial, so will kill the bacteria in the ear.  Once you have cleaned the ear take another pinch of Wampum Ear Powder and sprinkle it in the ear opening.  No need to push anything down the fragile ear canal!

I like to establish a routine of cleaning ears on one day and then treating with ear powder the next day.  Then repeat this on a 2 day cycle until the ears are completely healthy.  Watch ears in the winter when dogs like to lie next to a war fireplace or heater.

Step 4: Treating ear mites

Ear mites are parasites and are easily transmitted form one dog to another, especially at the vet and in kennels.  Ear mites need to be killed and then we need to keep killing the larvae that hatch from the eggs left behind over a the life cycle of the ear mite (about 3-4 weeks).  The safest insecticide to use on dogs is a pyrethroid as pyrethroids are non-toxic to vertebrates, non-toxic to dogs and humans, but lethal to insects like mites and lice.  Pyrethoids are substances like cypermethrin, permethrin, deltamethrin and so on (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrethroid) and can be bought either as dog dips or garden spray insecticides (read the ingredients on the bottle carefully).  You will need a small dropper bottle, 50ml ear oil as above and 1 drop of the pyrethroid to make up your ear mite solution.  And this solution will be used over 4 weeks every day.  Place 1 drop of the solution in each ear and massage the canal gently.  Continue with the above regime of ear cleaning as usual.

Your dog will thank you forever once their ears are clean!!  Healthy dogs are happy dogs 😊