Penny's Story

“Penny” is a six month old Springer Spaniel who came into our hospital for a routine spay surgery. During Penny's physical examination, her owners mentioned that in spite of cleaning her ears daily, she still had an accumulation of dark brown discharge in her ears.  While some ear wax is normal, this did not sound like that was the case with Penny.  Penny appeared to have an ear infection.  

In order to correctly diagnosis and treat Penny, ear cytology was performed. We took a sample of the discharge in Penny’s ears and with a smear and stain technique, looked at it under the microscope. Both of Penny’s ears had a significant amount of yeast growth.  While both of her ears were affected, the yeast infection was minimal due to her owners’ diligence in keeping her ears checked and cleaned regularly. Voicing their concerns led us to look deep into Penny's ear canals with an otoscope, where we found the discharge which couldn’t be reached with a daily cleaning of the visible areas of her ears.

 

Signs of Ear Infection Discharge in the ears (often black and chunky, or yellow and pasty). Foul odor. Excessive scratching or rubbing of the ears. Redness or swelling in the inner flap and canal. Shaking or tilting head to the side. Pain to the touch of the ears. Irritable behavior.

We flushed and cleaned Penny's ear canals while she was still asleep after being spayed and instilled medication into them. The same medication was then sent home with her, to treat her ears for the next 2 weeks. With a few tips on ear cleaning from us, Penny’s owners are now able to clean her ear canals and help to prevent more problems with yeast overgrowth.

 

Dogs like Spaniels who have long, floppy ears are particularly susceptible to ear infections. The dark, warm, moist ear canal is a haven for these organisms which are apart of the normal microflora of a dog’s skin. If left unchecked, these infections can spread to the entire inside ear surface and become quite raw and painful. Luckily for Penny, her owners made sure to check her ears regularly and had the infection treated before it became worse.

 

DID YOU KNOW: Ear infections are one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders in the dog. They have been reported to affect 10 to 20 percent of the canine population.  In the cat,

ear infections are much less common with incidence reported to be somewhere between 2 to 10 percent.

If your pet is showing signs of an ear infection, you should take it to your veterinarian as soon as possible.  Ear disorders are extremely common in dogs, and they can become very serious if left untreated.