# Pugs and Their Ears



## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i didn't want to say anything, but now i think i must, so i shall.

bubba started out with horridly yucky smelly ears. of course, we were on kibble at the time. 

i even had to have him operated on to clean out his right ear because the ear canal is too narrow to even see without a deep scope....and they found a wad of hair in his ear...that was a year and a half ago.

fast forward and we started raw two years ago....still, i was cleaning his ears out every few days...they weren't yeasty or smelly as much as they had brown gunk...so i figured it was that wax that dogs get ..the dogs with floppy ears, at any rate.

recently i ran out of zymox, my ear cleaner of choice.

so.

i put a little bit of melted coconut oil, some bragg's acv, some hydrogen peroxide into a little glass container...and gently put a little bit on a cotton ball and put a little into his ear.....and massaged until i could hear the stuff swishing around.

i did not flood his ear as i used to do.

then i waited and using a q tip, began to gently see if i could pull out the brown waxy gunk.

there wasn't any.

this is the first time i've cleaned his ears and there was no gunk.

there was a little bit of brown on the cotton ball, but no gunk. no pieces of gunk.

i am most pleased and he's not shaking his head like the exorcist.


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

It is so nice to be surprised by yet another benefit from raw. Not that you didn't know it was helping but to suddenly realize that problem is a thing of the past! Woo hoo!
I've renewed my teeth cleaning obsession with the plaque stuff I bought but of course started looking again at everyone's teeth and am pleased with the ones I'm not using it on. Karma and Camden are both just under 5 yrs old and their teeth look great. Bri and Bailey both have stains on their teeth from pecans and probably from having tartar on their teeth for so long before raw, but now no tartar and they're 11 yrs old. 
And as I was looking in all the mouths it occurred to me how Angel doesn't have any odor anymore. She was a yeasty little stinker and now that's totally gone. Karma wasn't as bad as Angel but still had that musty smell. Now, nothing. 
I sat in the rubber room a little while ago watching everyone chew on a big hunk of rib (thank God Snorkels wasn't there :wink and it was so satisfying to see my little bitty dogs gnawing and ripping and tearing away. Soooo many people would just not get that but I know you guys do....
Good for you Bubba the clean-eared Pug!


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i was just thinking the same thing, though i am not as fortunate as you with your rubber room.

i was washing the dog blankets sunday and yesterday....and yes, we have that many just for the dogs.....don't ask.

and i realised they don't smell...they have shed on them, but they don't smell....

how cool is that?


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

That is so awesome about Bubba-Boy's ears!!:biggrin:

I know how much you have had to deal with them, and it is so wonderful for you to be able to have that now only a maintenance thing rather then a consistent upkeep!!:biggrin1:


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

It's interesting about the ears because I was just having that conversation with the Havana Silk breeder when I met her that weekend. Usually with long haired breeds, you have to continuously pluck the hair out of their ears and constantly deal with ear problems. 

She was telling me that she is one of the only breeders that she knows of that never has to pluck her dogs ears or deal with any ear problems at all. She just puts a little coconut oil in them once in awhile. Her dogs are entirely raw fed and even though they still have some hair in their ears, they never get infections and any gunk at all in them. 

She has been trying for a long time to convert other breeders to raw but hasn't been able to convince them yet. She was so happy to have someone to talk to about it at the show!


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

we used to have to pluck the shih tzus' ears....but they were kibble fed, though i did clean them once a month...they didn't get infected either.....

but bubba....his ears were loaded with brown gunk every few days....then every week.....now it's every few weeks...and now the gunk is minimal....

we also have his ears plucked but i think we're going to stop that now....and see what happens.

i was thinking i would have to have him sedated for a deep ear cleaning once a year, but happy days, snoopy dance, i don't think so. 

what i'm most proud of is the concoction i came up with......


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## NewYorkDogue (Sep 27, 2011)

magicre said:


> what i'm most proud of is the concoction i came up with......


Yes-- this is what I was going to ask you about. How did you come up with the magic formula? 

What I use is a mixture of hydrogen peroxide/vinegar/witch hazel. Didn't think to figure coconut oil into the mix... but I can see where it would be helpful.

Mateo's ears are pretty clean; just some dirt (when he plays IN the dirt), and a bit of brown stuff. But not much.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

when i was a kid, i had really bad ear aches...those were the days when some oil was used in a dropper....

whatever those drops had in them was a miracle because they were the only thing that helped.

i have no family to ask what was used...

but coconut oil is one of those everything oils and it's light....i'm not flooding the ear with it....and i feed it to them...their coats are awesome btw.....along with emu oil and olive oil....rotated of course...

the hydrogen peroxide to me is a duh....as it is to most people...and the bragg's acv is something i feed too.....

so why not use that vinegar instead of the cheapo white vinegar.....

and water to dilute, because it can be a harsh combo.

now after two treatments...i'll see how long he goes before he needs another one.

i'm sure he will. he is a floppy eared dog....or maybe i'll be pleasantly surprised.


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## NewYorkDogue (Sep 27, 2011)

magicre said:


> when i was a kid, i had really bad ear aches...those were the days when some oil was used in a dropper....
> 
> whatever those drops had in them was a miracle because they were the only thing that helped.
> 
> ...


Sounds good. Hey, have you heard of Kombucha? It's a type of live, fermented "tea", with lots of good bacterial properties. Anyway, I make my own (you can buy it now in health food store for $5/bottle), but super cheap to make it yourself. 

Kombucha has a bit of a vinegary taste (if you let it ferment for more than a week or two)--- I have heard it can be used topically as well. It has a "mother", just as ACV does. Wonder if that could be used instead of ACV...

Just thinking "out loud"....


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## twoisplenty (Nov 12, 2008)

I have always use a mixture of ACV and water to clean ears but I never thought to use coconut oil as well. If I think ears are red looking or smelly at all I usually use Collodial Silver and that always clears them right up


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

yep. i was just having a discussion about kombucha....

i don't know if the two are interchangeable....don't know enough about it. now you have research to do


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

twoisplenty said:


> I have always use a mixture of ACV and water to clean ears but I never thought to use coconut oil as well. If I think ears are red looking or smelly at all I usually use Collodial Silver and that always clears them right up


do you make your own?

there was someone in a group that gave her dog grape seed extract, ten drops per day...and cleaned him up from the inside out and ears were forever fine...

since i don't think bubba's ears are infected....meaning they are not red and smelly....i don't think they are yeasty or infected...just waxy....

do you think using colloidal silver would work better? absent an infection, swelling, or smell.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

that is way cool. And maybe you could bottle and sell your oil mixture - you have to wonder how many dogs suffer for years with their ears and it's food related. Crazy stuff.

We need a photo of Bubba with his clean ears  -


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

What do you think the cause of his ear gunk was?

My sisters pug has never had ear issues.


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

I will try your concoction in Rocky's ears. Even though his ears stand up, he periodically gets a red, smelly, ear problem where he starts scratching at them and I will use Zymox in them for a few days. Maybe your stuff will keep it from coming back longer. If Bubba is doing so much better, then it should surely help Rocky , who doesn't have near the problem that Bubba did.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

chowder said:


> I will try your concoction in Rocky's ears. Even though his ears stand up, he periodically gets a red, smelly, ear problem where he starts scratching at them and I will use Zymox in them for a few days. Maybe your stuff will keep it from coming back longer. If Bubba is doing so much better, then it should surely help Rocky , who doesn't have near the problem that Bubba did.


i wonder why rocky gets red, smelly ears....that sounds more like yeast....

make sure you dilute it, because i wouldn't want the acv to burn his ears...

i don't really measure, but if i have half of my little two ounce glass container half filled, i fill it the rest of the way with warm, filtered water...well, bottled water. let's not get too too fancy here. 

i wonder if a little tea tree oil might help....with rocky. it's a healing oil.

it won't hurt....and it's been trial and error now since i had to have him sedated just to clean his ears....i don't want to have to do that every year.

xelill...you come over and hold him and i'll take pics of his ears.

sprocket....ear gunk in pugs is not unheard of, just like excess wax in humans is not unheard of.

not necessarily a breed thing....but it's brown gunk, which i think is a build up of wax...

not only does he have floppy ears which deprives him of oxygen, he also has very narrow ear canals....one of which can't be seen unless he's sedated....

i don't think we'll ever ever be able to stop maintenance...but we will need to do it less often....

donna, isn't it amazing, the things we took for granted would always be there and suddenly find out it's no longer there or a problem?


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