Yeast infection of ear
 

Bella has been scratching her right ear for the past few weeks, but it had become worse in the past few days. I suspected that it was an ear infection due to long hair on her ears keeping the moisture in following her baths, so I took her in for an early grooming yesterday with special instructions to trim the hair on her ears. The good news is that Bella got her best grooming to date, and the groomer did a special Valentine's Day photoshoot of her (photos are posted in the Yorkietalk photos forum). The bad news is that her scratching continued today, so we got her in to see the vet. The doctor saw redness and discharge in her right ear and took a sample to examine under the microscope. It came back positive for yeast, and the doctor confirmed my hypothesis about the cause--moisture retention in her ears following her baths. Bella was prescribed a tri-otic ointment to be put in her right ear twice daily, and the vet techs showed me how to put cotton balls in her ears prior to bathing to keep water out, and how to clean her ears with special ear wash following her baths. Bella is resting peacefully as I write this, and has not scratched her right ear once since we got home from the vet 4 hours ago.

Glad she is feeling better. I tried the cotton balls in the ears when giving a bath but they kept falling out. Now I fold the ears over the head with one hand and rinse the head with a wash cloth with the other hand. What is the trick to using the cottom balls and making them stay in?

They showed me tiny cotton balls. Maybe if they're too big, they can be broken into smaller balls? They told me to be sure not to forget to remove the cotton balls after the bath!

So glad Bella's feeling better! I pluck the hair out of my dogs' ears and trim the edges. Also I never squirt water in the ears, only around with reduced water pressure when bathing their heads.

I can so relate to Bella's ear scratching & ear pain.

ZoE was scratching her ears the other week, so last Friday she went to the vet. She had a yeast infection and was given ointment to put twice daily in her ears too.

When I have her a bath last night, I ripped a cotton ball in half and stuck each half in each of her ears, and proceeded to bathe her. All was going well until she shook herself and the cotton balls went flying out of her ears and into the bathtub. I'm not quite sure how to make them stay in.

I'm glad to hear Bella is feeling some relief already.

Hope the drops help Bella's ear & she'll be ok!

One way to put cotton in their ears is to roll it in your fingers like you would to a ear plug. Put it in their ear, gently push it in (not too far, then it will be harder to take out) & it will expand inside their ear. Some still manage to shake it out but most keep it in. I noticed that the cotton still gets wet, so the best way is to just fold down their ears when it's time to rinse their head (like richards6402).

Thanks for the suggestion! We just got a bag of cotton balls from Walmart. They only had the jumbos, so we already know we will have to pull off smaller pieces. We are planning to wash her ears out with Zymox ear cleaner right after her bath, so maybe it won't matter if she gets a little water in her ears before that, but we're going to try to keep her ears as dry as possible.

Yes, you can pull them apart to make the cotton balls smaller. If it's too small, you can pull more off & make them a better fit for the ear.

Ohh that's funny & kind of embarrassing, that happened to me once. I 4got to pull out the cotton from my client & the owner told me that she kept calling his name, 'Oreo, Oreo' (adorable Blk & White Shih Tzu:D) & he wouldn't come or even look @ her. She thought he was going deaf (since he's a senior), checked his ear & the cotton was still in there!:p