At home, use a good quality ear cleaner specifically for pets that has an antiseptic action and will help break down wax and debris and have a drying action. We recommend “Epi-Otic” ear cleaner.

Be generous with the amount of ear cleaner that you use. You are aiming to thoroughly “flush” the ear canal. A few drops is a waste of effort.

Instill a generous amount into both ear canals and massage the base of the canal. Allow this to sit in the ear canal for 5 minutes then flush again. Gently clean around the opening of the ear canal with a cotton wool ball soaked in the cleaner. You can clean the top part of the ear canal but be careful not to push any debris further down into the canal. You are aiming to flush it up and out.

Initially when treating an infected ear, we recommend cleaning the ear every second day. Once it is controlled then once weekly or once fortnightly should suffice.

In some atopic dogs, we will add an anti-inflammatory drug to the ear cleaner to help relieve itch and irritation. This will only last in solution for 3 months so if you have not used up the bottle in that time, it will only have cleansing effects and not anti-inflammatory effects.

When applying medicated ear drops, the following points are important:

1.Once again, be generous. You need a minimum of 1ml of the drops in each ear canal twice daily for it to be effective and you will need to use them for at least a week, so 2 bottles may be necessary. 3 or 4 drops (as indicated on some labels) will never reach the bottom of the ear canal and is thus useless.

2.You MUST complete the full course. Often the irritation associated with the condition will be much improved or even gone after a couple of days. However if you stop treatment at this stage, the organisms are not completely eliminated and the condition will recur. This is also how antibiotic resistance develops.

For a demonstration video clip of how to apply ear drops, go to our page on www.mvol.com.au/lamingtonterracevet then click on dog or cat care information and then click on ear care.

Alternatively, you can see the videos here: DOG CARE | CAT CARE