My poor Deva has an ear infection and I am having that “Bad Mom” feeling even though I know I’m a good mom. Ironically, the 5 poodles have spotlessly clean ears and the American Eskimo mix has the infection. The reason for this? Simple. I’m always concerned about poodle ears because infections are common among poodles (not among my poodles they aren’t). In fact in some reports ear infections have come up as the number one, most common ailment that vets see dogs for. Deva is the only dog here who goes to a groomer and I have assumed that the groomer cleans her ears and all is well. Deva gave no indication that she had an ear problem.  Some dogs will paw at their ears or shake their heads or even yelp when you go to scratch behind their ears if it’s bad.  It was only noticed during a vet exam when I took her to see him about her back problem.  The dogs most likely to get ear infections are those with long hair whose hair also grows in their ears and with ear flaps that hang down over the ear openings; poodles, cocker spaniels and such. I have heard that labs are also prone to ear infections even though they don’t fit the usual criteria.

If you keep your dogs ears clean and check them regularly you will stay on top of the situation and even if an infection occurs it won’t have time to get very bad before you deal with it. (Deva’s ear infection cost over $300 to deal with and I’m not certain that we’re finished yet.)

First, remove hair from ears. Some dogs, like the poodles and cocker spaniels have hair growing inside their ears and this hair must be removed regularly. If you do this about once a month it won’t be too hard on you or the dog. Most dogs don’t mind this very much and some even fall asleep on my lap when I’m doing it.   If the dog isn’t used to behaving well while having her ears messed with, use treats and start very slowly. (See the article on Grinding Nails and proceed the same way.)

You’ll need:

Ear powder, tweezers (especially for smaller dogs), ear cleaner, cotton balls and/or q-tips.

Sprinkle a very small amount of ear powder in the dog’s ear. The powder absorbs the moisture and makes the hairs easier to grip. You can do this without the powder but it’s much easier with it and a bottle of ear powder will probably last years if you only have one dog. Grasp a couple of hairs at a time between your thumb and forefinger and “pluck” them out. Do not grab a bunch of hair, do not use hemostats. If you are at all reluctant to do this or unsure of how to do it have your vet show you how on your next visit.  (Your vet should be happy to show you this. If not you need a different vet.)  Keep plucking a couple/few hairs at a time until all hair is out of the ear canal. With little dogs it can be more difficult to reach inside of the ear and you may need tweezers. Be careful not to grasp the little hills and valleys that make up the inside of the ear.

Once the hair is removed pour the ear cleaner into the ear then massage around the base of the ear.  Wipe out the inside of the ear with cotton balls or q-tips. (You don’t want to jam the q-tip down the dog’s ear but you really don’t have to worry too much about pushing too far because the dog’s ear canal is L shaped making it difficult to hurt the ear drum.) If there is black gunky ear wax be careful not to push it further down into the ear. This is a sign of infection and

The ears may have a little wax normally and some dogs – especially diggers – may have some dirt but there should not be a lot of gunky black in the ear. This is a sign of infection and should probably be seen by the vet.  Cleaning the ears every week or two and pluck the hair once a month. This should keep the ears nice and clean and alert you early to any signs of infection.

Marlene Riofrio Tepper’s Ruby Jean. Ruby Jean has her own facebook fan page.

Do you know what time your vet’s office closes? Do you know if there is someone on duty all night? Are they open on Saturday? You probably don’t need to know these things today but on the day you do it might be too late to make an alternate plan.

Veterinary practices vary widely. Some vets work in hospitals which are open all hours and others keep banker’s hours and refer clients to an emergency vet who is open when the other vets offices are not. You need to know what your vets hours are and where the nearest emergency vet is. If the e-vet is at a location that’s not familiar to you it would not be a bad idea to drive over there and see exactly where it is, maybe even go at night and introduce yourself. This is not a place you are going to want to have to find in the dark in a panic and that’s what is likely to happen if you don’t visit beforehand.

Make sure you know your own vet’s hours and the emergency vet’s hours. I was shocked to find (when I had a sick dog) that my vet closes for a couple of hours on many Thursday afternoons for in-service training. However, once I knew it the vet told me to come knock on the back door if I needed her during those hours. Potential problem solved!

You should also make sure to find out if your vet’s office is staffed at night. Never assume that it is or you might be as shocked as I was to find out that while I was paying to board one of my girls for the night, I was essentially leaving her alone. There was no one on the premises from 6 PM until 8 AM. “What if there’s a fire?” I asked and got only blank stares in return.

You never know what odd thing might happen. I’ve had to use the emergency vet a number of times over the years. A couple of times there would have been only minor ramifications if I had waited until my vet was open but on one occasion I would probably have lost the dog if I hadn’t known exactly where I was going and gotten there as quickly as I did. Hopefully you won’t need this information but it’s reassuring to have. (Share it with your neighbors when you get it. They’ll appreciate it too.)

.

I’ve been informed – through advertisements mostly – that February is National Pet Dental Month. (I hope it’s still Black History Month too but that’s another topic.) I have a lot to say about pet dental health and as only you dog lovers will understand, I can get huffy on the subject of dogs’ teeth. The thing that makes me mad is the lying advertising. People believing the lies without giving any thought to a subject also makes me mad.

The issue of teeth, especially in little dogs, is a big one and goes far beyond tooth decay. The big problem is periodontal disease which over 80% of all dogs have by the time they are 3 years old. Read that sentence again, it’s a BIG issue. It often causes a continual infection and it can cause or amplify diseases of almost all the other organs.  This is not a minor issue of a dog losing a tooth. Taking care of your dog’s dental health is an area where your actions can have a huge effect on the overall health of your dog.

Let’s get clear on something: Treats don’t clean your dog’s teeth. No biscuit, no Greenie (which I’ve read many times are dangerous for other reasons), no dog food, no toy (with or without fibers, nubs, pointy things that kill you when you step on them or other features).  Please if I’m wrong, show me before and after pictures. I’m teachable!

There are three possible things that will clean your dog’s teeth and two of them are MUCH better than the other.  If you start with clean dog teeth and brush your dog’s teeth every day (and yes, a lot of people really do this) they may stay clean. They will definitely stay cleaner than if you don’t do it.  You can train a dog to this and you can easily train a puppy to it. Always use dog toothpaste (never human toothpaste which can make your dog sick).  This is the least effective of the three methods but don’t write it off. It is definitely worth doing especially if you won’t do one of the following.

Dental cleanings at the vet.  This is the best cleaning you can get there is just one big drawback in my mind and that’s the fact that the dog has to be put under anesthesia. (It can also be pretty expensive especially for multi-dog owners.) If  your dog has to be put under anesthesia for another reason, have his teeth cleaned if possible. It will be a lot cheaper if he’s already under and you will have already made the anesthesia decision. (Note, My friend just pointed this out: Before taking your dog (or kitty) in for his/her teeth cleaning this month which is Pet Dental month please find out what they use to knock them out and then make sure it is not on a RECALL LIST. Just a precaution as we hear that some have been recalled.)

I have read of people who do dental scalings on their own dogs with dental tools. I’m a pretty dedicated do-it-yourselfer but that’s a little too much for me. If you think you could do it though, search for information from those who do.

The best all around method for keeping dog’s teeth clean is the least well known and the most controversial. One of the reasons for this is that it doesn’t require products that pet product manufactures can make money on.  The method is giving your dog raw meaty bones to chew on. There are two different types of bones for this, bones that the dogs will chew and bones they will actually eat.

There is a whole community of people who feed their dogs raw diets and these diets include raw meat (bones included). This is called the Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diet or the Bones and Raw Food diet,  unfortunately often shortened to the BARF diet. This is not the place to give you all the ins and outs of a raw food diet but what you should know is that even the tiny dogs can eat raw meat and bones (my 4 1/2 pound Java eats half a raw chicken wing in about 8 minutes) and almost all the dogs I’ve known on this diet have done very well on it.  (Sometimes too much raw meat causes diarrhea but that usually resolves in a short time.)

If you want the benefits of the raw food diet for your dog’s teeth but don’t want to go fully into a raw diet you can give your dog raw meaty bones to chew on. These will help their teeth enormously. Only the very back tooth on each side of my dogs’ mouths aren’t cleaned by the RMBs.  We use beef ribs that we buy in the grocery store. I give Deva a whole beef rib (she’s 35 lbs) but I have the butcher cut a slab of ribs in half for the little ones and they get a half a rib once or twice a week.  If you are starting your dogs on beef ribs cut most of the meat off to start and leave a bit more on each time until they are used to it and it won’t give them diarrhea. (A little bit of canned pumpkin – not pumpkin pie mix but plain pumpkin – is good for their digestion and can sometimes stave off diarrhea or constipation.)

I have proof of the efficiency of beef ribs.  As you already know about me I hate unfounded claims and I’m hesitant to believe things people tell me.  I realized that after I’d fed my dogs some RMBs and luckily before too much time passed it dawned on me to take pictures. You can see the results on my Molly’s teeth in the pictures I took.

If you are interested in learning more about a raw food diet for your dog there are numerous good books at dogwise.com and there are numerous forums all over the web where you will find people who will share their information with you. Dog.com has a good forum and some knowledgeable people.

Let me know if you have any questions and please remember to upload your dog’s picture to our Facebook Dog Stuff page.

I used to brush all these little teeth, every day.

We hate fleas.  Some of you are lucky enough to live in an area where fleas don’t become a real problem. We have a problem with them.  For years I’ve used Advantage to get rid of them.  A few people have asked me lately about Advantage Multi which also protects against heartworm.  Although all of my dogs are on heartworm protection and I consider it vital I will not use Advantage Multi for a couple of reasons.

The heartworm preventive in AM is moxidectin. This is the same preventive that was used in Proheart6 from Fort Dodge that was pulled off the market a few years ago when it killed a number of dogs.  I may be too cautious but I know that ivermectin has been used for many years and there have been no issues except for ivermectin sensitive breeds (mostly collies and herding breeds). Heartgard and most of the other popular heartworm preventives are based on ivermectin.

We have sometimes used Advantage more often than once a month. One summer we used it almost weekly.  I would not want to subject my dogs to moxidectin (or any other drug) in higher doses than they need and would not want it to build up.  I give each dog a dose of heartworm preventive monthly. I don’t want it mixed with anything I might not have to give monthly or more often than monthly.

When using Advantage I spend only a fraction of what you’d spend if you buy the size labeled for your 10 pound or less dog and we don’t use more than necessary. These are serious chemicals after all.  Here’s an excerpt from a page on my site about Advantage:

A four month supply of Advantage for a dog up to 10 pounds contains a total of 1.6 ml. and costs $38.99. A four month supply of the same compound for a dog over 55 pounds contains a total of 16 ml and costs $42.99.  (This is the cost at petco.com in Nov. ‘04). This breaks down as follows:

1.6 ml (approx. 32 drops -8 drops per monthly dose) @ 38.99 = 24.36 per ml
16 ml (approx. 320 drops – 80 drops per monthly dose) @ 42.99 = 2.68 per ml.

If you don’t like math think of it this way:

Ten times the amount for only $4.00 more!

For an 8 pound dog, this would save you around $70. a year – that’s a lot of Kongs!