Why do I need to clean my pet's ears? Some dogs and cats are more susceptible to ear problems than others. Unfortunately the ear canal in both cats and dogs is long and curved, on top of this some breeds have thick hair growing in the canal itself making it the perfect environment for bacteria and parasites.

To clean your pet's ears: Never use cotton buds to clean your pet’s ears, you could do some serious damage. Clean your pet’s ears outdoors, or in a room where mess doesn’t matter, as they will probably want to shake dirty drops out of their ears!  Use a good veterinary ear cleaner which comes in a bottle with a dropper at the end of it. You should aim to drop between 5 and 15 ml (1 tsp to 1 tbsp) into your pet’s ear, depending on the size of your pet. You need to get the liquid right down into the ear canal, so gently massage the area underneath the base of the ear. You should hear the liquid squelching if you are doing this correctly.  Massage like this for about 20 seconds. 

Next, gently massage in an upward direction to push the liquid back up the ear canal.  Have a cotton wool ball ready to wipe away the liquid as it appears.  This will probably be very mucky on the first cleaning.  Give the ear flap a good wipe too. Repeat this process 2 or 3 times for each ear.  You can safely clean your pet’s ears once a day if necessary.