Looking at dogs ears.

Charlie1986

Looks like my pug has some sort of ear infection so we'll be off to the vets in the morning. The only problem is he won't let anyone go near his ears at all. Does anyone know how the vet will be able to get a look at the problem, do they sedate dogs for ear infections?
He's a lovely dog but anyone trying to go near his feet or ears is going to be in for a real struggle

Sagaris

Vets have ways!

They are very experienced with 'difficult' customers, I'm sure they will be able to peek in your dog's ears without too much bother. Our beagle had an ear infection before Christmas, slightly different as she loves her ears being handled - sadly she now rmemebers the vets as the place where her anal glands get emptied - not the most pleasant experince for her! So she still struggles, but the vet manages to restrain her very well.

Good luck for tomorrow- you might need to ask for advice if your dog needs ear cleaning, as ours did twice a day, followed by drops - luckily the infection is gone now!

Charlie1986

He's well known at the vets so they know what to expect with him. I have a feeling he'll have to be sedated or something along those lines as he had to be when he had his nails clipped
Doing the ear cleaning/drops at home though will prove interesting :rotfl:

Humphrey10

Vets and vet nurses are quite skilled at restraining dogs in my experience, and if this is not possible they will sedate them (a relative had a dog that needed his anal glands emptied, he wouldn't let anyone near his rear end after the first time (I don't blame him!), so the vet had to sedate him. The dog still almost managed to bite his hand off, it took 3 of them holding him down in the end, even with him sedated!). My dog doesn't like having her nails cut (after I tried to do it and made them bleed ), she doesn't bite but really fights to get away, the vet managed to hold her still and cut her nails by himself, I was quite impressed.

Sagaris

Would resorting to bribery work? :rotfl: I can't think of any other way of doing it!

Our poor beagle screamed the place down when we took her for her ear and anal gland problem - the looks on the faces of the people in the waiting room had to be seen to be believed - we had all got chatting before we took her in, and had only said about the ear problem - I didn't like to emntion about the other end! Heaven knows what they thought the vet was doing to her!

Mind you, as unpleasant as it was, Sammy never tried to scratch or bite any of us - probably why beagles are used in lab experiments.

Charlie1986

I'm going to go prepared to pay for him having to be sedated. He does get quite aggressive if the vet doesn't take notice of his first warning .
It was the vet that said to us 'I have never seen such a small dog with such big attitude' :rotfl:If they do manage to take a look without sedating him then ill want to know their secret!
At least if I go prepared to pay for the sedation as well I wont collapse at the cost when we go to pay

hethmar

My border terrier screams the house down when we try to clip his nails. When I took him to the vets once I said could you clip his nails while we are here. He took him in another room I think he probably put a leash on him to hold him still and then did them.

Charlie1986

Much to mine and the vets surprise he was able to look at my dogs ears, take a swab and give him ear drops with no real problem at all (thats when we know he's not feeling well). He does have an ear infection and its quite bad. He's been letting me put the drops in his ear but then scratches at it after so i'm not sure if they're having the effect they should do, might be another trip to the vets next week.

elsien

Charlie1986 wrote: »

Doing the ear cleaning/drops at home though will prove interesting :rotfl:

I can remember having to sneak up on previous mutt while she was asleep and sneak the eardrops in while she was still snoring away. Luckily she was a very heavy sleeper - she'd wake up to me rubbing her ear to make sure the drops had gone in while I pretended I was just giving her a fuss.
Not overburdened with brains, bless her.

Perhaps the eardrops just need a bit longer to take effect - it's only been a few days.

Sagz_2

Charlie1986 wrote: »

Much to mine and the vets surprise he was able to look at my dogs ears, take a swab and give him ear drops with no real problem at all (thats when we know he's not feeling well). He does have an ear infection and its quite bad. He's been letting me put the drops in his ear but then scratches at it after so i'm not sure if they're having the effect they should do, might be another trip to the vets next week.

Have you tried putting the drops in whilst out on a walk?
That way there are other things going on that may take his attention away from scratching his poor ears.

Another trick is to do his ear drops just before he eats: prepare a REALLY tasty dinner and leave it just out of reach, do his ear drops and then give his meal straight away.

Hope he's soon on the mend x

WolfSong2000

If you do manage todo his ears, I'd have a treat ready to give him straight afterwards, so he associates having his ears done with something positive...may or may not help, but got to be worth a shot. Luckily my family's dog is quite good at having ear drops, etc, put in, bless him, but I remember his dad's expression (we used to own current dog's dad, but he was PTS recently) whenever he had to get his anal glands done...was priceless. lol.