Use Home Remedies For Dog Ear Infection and Treat Your Dog at Home
If you’ve ever made costly trips to the vet, then home remedies for dog ear infections have most likely crossed your mind. We all love our dogs and want to give them the best care, but sometimes it becomes necessary to see if we can treat our dogs with natural treatments and spare the expense of costly vet visits and medications with side effects.
Types Ear Infection
Before you consider dog ear infections at home remedies, you need to know a little background. First, there are two types of ear infections in dogs just as there are in humans. Your dog could be suffering from otitis externa which is a fancy way of saying an outer ear infection or he could be suffering from otitis media which is an infection of the middle ear.
Symptoms of Infection
It won’t take long for you to notice something just isn’t right with your dog. When he has an ear infection, he will most like to shake his head as if something is bothering him. Other signs include scratching at his ears and whimpering when petted in the ear area. You may also notice that his ears are red and there could be an odor with a smelly discharge.
Home Remedies for Dog Ear Infection
There are several remedies that you can try to rid your dog of its infection. Some of these include using apple cider or balsamic vinegar, different oils, alcohol, and garlic. Before you begin to treat your dog, you need to gently clean out your dog’s ears. You can do this by wetting cotton balls and gently removing any dirt and discharge that is in his ears. Once you have his ears clean, you can begin using your home remedies.
Vinegar
One of the most common home remedies is using Apple Cider Vinegar or Balsamic vinegar. These two kinds of vinegar seem to work best. To try this remedy, use a solution of equal parts vinegar and clean water. Dampen a cotton ball in the vinegar mixture and gently swab the mixture into the ear. Do not “flood” the ear with the mixture. Dogs have trouble draining fluid from their ears and this is one cause they get infections in the first place. Leaving fluid in the ears will lead to a worse infection.
Vinegar works for fungal infections and yeast infections.