My dog Moose has been doing that head shake lately — the one that says ear mites might be to blame. If you’re a dog owner, you may know what I’m talking about: one ear at half mast, frantic head shaking, lots of ear scratching.
A quick swipe with a baby wipe showed me that he has debris in the wonky ear. Ear mite debris is usually very dark, and looks a bit like coffee grinds. This was lighter in color, so maybe ear mites aren’t to blame. Maybe he’s got an excess of ear wax, or some other kind of infection in his ear. In any case, I figured an ear wash couldn’t hurt.
Moose is pretty tolerant with my messing around. He’s good about baths, toenail trims, and other grooming. He didn’t fight to escape when I used the baby wipes on his ears, so I figured he’d be patient with the ear washing.
I figured wrong.
The instructions on the bottle go like this: shake well, apply to ear, massage in so it gets into the ear canal, wipe out with a cotton ball or other clean, dry cloth. Easy enough, right?
Shaking well was problem number one. Somewhere between the last time I used the ear wash and today, the cap broke. It wouldn’t stay screwed onto the top of the bottle! I had to tape the cap back together before it would stay in place.
Applying the liquid to Moose’s ear was problem number two. I held the ear loosely with one hand and squeezed the stuff in with the other. Unfortunately, I should have been holding his whole head still. Moose started to shake, giving me an instant bath in ear cleanser. Fun! Now we’ll both be clean.
While I was trying to massage the ear cleaner into the ear canals, Moose kept pulling away to shake. I was pretty well covered in liquid ear cleanser by the time I finished the ear massage.
At least the part where I wiped out the excess liquid with a cotton ball went smoothly! Moose got his ears cleaned and I needed a shower to clean myself off afterwards.