Why does my dog get itchy ears?

Dogs who have uncomfortable ears year-round, it’s just at two or three times a year. It gets really bad and the owners notice and take them to the vet for the ear drops. But those ear drops don’t fix the problem, they do make the patient more comfortable, but they don’t fix the underlying issue which is allergic dermatitis.

Now there are of course other causes why ears can get inflamed in certain parts of the world. Grass seeds that work the way the ears and get stuck in there. That’s usually pretty obvious, those are really mucky wet ears.

A lot of people talk about plucking ear canals and about excessively hairy ear canals. In my honest opinion is just an old-school thing that should be forgotten. You know the only thing you’re gonna do about plucking an ear canal is irritate the skin there and make your dog feel worse.

It’s a very painful procedure, certainly can be done under sedation, but very few people bother to do that. And really, all you will do if you pluck hair from your dog’s ear canal it irritates the skin.

Now, a dog’s ear canal is incredibly long and it’s L-shaped, shaped like this. I can guarantee you, anybody who’s plucking a dog’s ears is plucking maybe the top ten, 20% of the canal. There’s hair all the way down in some breeds. You will not get at it no matter what you do in an awake animal.

So, really the plucking those air canals is not doing much and you’d be better off trying to figure out what the underlying cause is.

Usually, allergies and treating it appropriately and then preventing all of that build-up and all of that discharge from happening.

In conclusion, if your dog gets recurrent ear infections, don’t just treat the infections, look for the underlying cause and it’s probably going to be a food allergy.

Treat that and then your dog is going to be much much more comfortable. It’ll save you some money and recurring vet visits and. That’ll be better for everyone, right?

Finally, if you have any questions, let us know below in the comments, and thanks for your time.