# smelly ears



## biancasmom (Jun 24, 2008)

Hi everyone, i havent had a chance to post in a while due to work being busy. I need to post some new pictures of Bianca.. her tear stains have really cleared up!!!

here is my question:

Ever since Bianca had an ear infection back in january, from time to time now, she gets smelly ears (especially in her left one) In january, there was a lot of brown wax and the vet cleaned the ears out and gave me drops to use for a few days...

what i have noticed now is that sometimes her ears smell bad... and I will look at it and usuually it looks fine.. sometimes if i take a cotton pad and swab it, the cotton pad looks a little dirty but not much.. the groomer keeps her ears plucked and in fact she was just at the groomer this past sunday and I noticed her ears smelled again yesterday.. Ive taken her to the vet and he says there is no infection or anything and that its ok.. I really do not think it is ok tho.. sometimes she even will scratch inside the ear and then lick her paw which i hear they do when they have an ear ache..

does anyone have any ideas about what to do for this? i know when my ear is sore, i put some hydrogen peroxide in it and it bubbles for a while adn then drains out and feels better.. the groomer said to definitely not use that on the dog, it can burn their ears.


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## maltlovereileen (Jan 19, 2009)

Smelling the ears is a good indication if an infection is starting (that's what makes them smelly). We used to have trouble with this in previous dogs (the drop earred kind like malts can be prone to this)...but since I started using ear drops after bathing them, have been fortunate and haven't had smelly ears/ear infections. You may want to add this to your routine - quite easy and really seems to make a difference (a drying agent in there helps dry out any water trapped from the bath/makes it harder for an infection to take hold) : Dog Ear Cleaners - How to Select the Best Dog Ear Cleaner You are such a good mommy staying on top of things!!!!


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## jmm (Nov 23, 2004)

Cleaning the ears with a cleaner made for dog ears once a week should take care of things. You can get one from your vet.


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## harrysmom (Sep 28, 2007)

My black lab has chronic ear infections. I clean his ears at least
weekly with epi-otic ear cleaner and that seems to keep most of 
the infections and the smells at bay. I've used other ear cleaners
over the years, but this one seems to work the best. I get the epi-otic 
from the vet.


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## Cheri (Jan 7, 2008)

I've (thankfully) never had this problem with Vi or any of my dogs for that matter, but I heard Maltese are prone to it. So Here's what I do (with all my dogs) to prevent ear problems. You have her groomed, so idk if this will help or not, but I'll offer it anyway 

When I give her a bath, when I pour the water on her head I hold her ears against her head, plugging the ears so the water doesn't get in. I also am very careful not to get water in when shampooing and rinsing. After the bath I always take a cotton ball and wipe both ears with them (I use one for each ear, not the same ball for both). I also keep her ear hair plucked. And then once in a while when she's not super figity I'll use a q-tip and get in the crevices that the cotton ball wont get.
So far so god  And we don't use ear powder or anything.
I also noticed her paw is stained. Vi had that when she was on a lower quality food at her old place (puppy mill). And it took her a couple weeks to stop biting at her paws, but it really did make ALL the difference with her tear stains and her paws.
Hope you can figure it out!!


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## kayleygryder (Aug 8, 2010)

Thought I would share with you what we do. 

We stopped pouring water over Billies head when we washed her, that kept creating the ear infections, we stopped at the neck and use a damp cloth to clean her face. 

Our puppies ears had that smell from an infection, which was caused by us washing her head and getting water in her ears and instead of using meds to clear it up, we used 1 part vinegar 2 parts water and used cotton balls to clean them out and scraping the wax out with my nails. It worked and now they are clear. 

Now once a week we clean her ears out with that solution making sure I squeeze as much liquid from the cotton ball as possible and just wiping them out. The meds are like a band aid they aren't really looking at why it is happening. 

If you wash your dogs head by pouring water over it then stop doing that, also check out their diet which can also create the infection.

The diet we have ours on is as follows. 
1: no tinned or dried food. It's not so good for maltese as they do tend to have lots of allergies (vets say dried food, but I believe it's so they make money from the sales of the food which is why they recommend it) 

2: only raw food. For breakfast our puppies get raw snow peas, pears and carrots. With the seeds removed from the pears. 
lunch is apples with seeds removed, organically made bikkies + raw bones - chick necks, wings, legs, or carcass. or lamb necks whatever small bones you can find that aren't knuckle bones. 
Dinner is raw meat only. We have our butcher mince chicken carcass for us and I mix that with chicken stock that I make myself by slow cooking the carcasses with water, herbs and veges like celery, carrots, snowpeas, pumpkin and sweet potato. + offal atleast twice a week. Or they get lamb or beef. Ours don't do kangaroo well. But any kind of meat or even raw fish will do. The dogs eat the bones of the fish but if you are concerned get fillets. 

Also add Vitamin A by feeding liver/offal or alfalfa sprouts raw. 

Hope that helps.


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