Ear Trouble

Matty was walking around this morning shaking his head, and I sighed.

“Come here,” I said, “and let me see that ear!”

He trotted over and I lifted one up of his floppy ears to peer inside. It was too easy, so I went for the other one. He immediately tried to run away from me, and we got into a bit of a power struggle. Matty is extremely polite and mild-mannered, so rather than growling and snapping he headbutts and wiggles.

“Yeah, no, I really don’t like this… *headbutt*… so maybe you can *headbutt* stop now. Maybe? Please? *headbutt*” We both have headaches now.

When I finally got him in place by use of a sleeper hold, he went all gloomy and resigned and I was able to take a look.

Guh-ROSS! His ear canal is filled with dark maroon goo – an unholy mixture of dried blood and ear wax. Maybe some mite shit in there, if there are mites, which is likely. Oh, sorry, maybe you should put down the sandwich you were eating.

I cleaned it out with some witch hazel. Our old vet recommended this treatment before moving on to medications, a solution I like because it’s both better for the dog and better for my wallet. We’ll keep an eye on it for the next few days, and it seemed to help immediately, too, since he stopped fussing so much. Right now he’s sleeping off the trauma.

Poor buddy.