Dr. Lucas Kandefer is talks about eye and ear cleaning care for your dogs and cats. He says infections are one of the most common issues they deal with and most of the time they are caused by allergies. So just because your dog gets his ears wet or goes swimming or gets a bath doesn’t mean he is going to get an ear infection, but it does change the environment. You will find that you may have more infections if your dog is a swimmer. The same thing with cats. Dr. Kandefer says they do see ear mites here and there with them, but a lot of times indoor cats come in and they’re are looking at allergies and that and that’s something they have to try and control. He says if your pet has an allergy they have it for life and you’re going to have to manage it for the life of the pet and your vet can help you find a lot of different answers to make it easier to make sure your pet isn’t going through this on a regular basis. A really important tip to help work with our pets is to make sure they are comfortable with you working with their ears. Make sure you flip their ear back so you can see down in the ear hole and that is where we are going to do most of our treatment says Dr. Kandefer. He goes on to say often people will try and use a Q Tip or cotton bud, peroxide. The cotton bud is fine, but not the Q Tip to use peroxide. Peroxide burns and if your dog’s ears are inflamed that is really torture for them so you don’t want to do that. There are a lot of over-the-counter ear cleaners and your vet has ear cleaners that can help keep their ears clean and that’s really part of their maintenance, to make sure we are flushing those ears and changing the environment. If you are seeing infections on regular basis talk to your veterinarian. They will help you find the right medication. Dr. Kandefer says the other they do see is that dogs and cats will end up with some eye boogers. So, when trying to clean those out use a little warm gauze and wet it a little bit and take it from the corner to help wipe those out with that cotton or gauze. Cats often have the same thing. Dr. Kanderfer says a lot of our dogs, expecially those with the short squishy nose, will end getting infections around the eye because that’s constantly draining in that area. Make sure you are doing maintenance in that keeping it clean and dry can really help prevent those infections that cause chronic irritation and issues.
Cats will often end up with eye discharge and frequently upper respiratory infections even if they are indoor cats only. You will see herpes type virus that will causes some eye discharge, most likely a cold for you and I, so it’s a little maintenance to keep them comfortable. If you see pus or mucus in your dog’s or cat’s eyes that’s usually when you want to get your vet involved to help you out. Overall, just some product maintenance on those eyes and ears, keeping them clean without putting a lot of things in there to help keep those infections and irritations at bay.
