Pet Ear Cleaning:

Cleaning ears of pets is one of the major requirements for pet health care. Cats and dogs that have large ears are particularly susceptible to ear infections. Cleaning your pet’s ears periodically is important in order to ward off such ear infections.

Animals’ ears are extremely sensitive, and therefore, it is not always easy to clean them. It might be necessary to restrain your pet before you begin the cleaning routine. This is because if your pet is not restrained correctly, it may start to fidget, and in the process a sensitive area of the ear may get injured.
You might need different kinds of restraints for your pet, depending on its size. For example in small pets, restraint is not very difficult. You can simply hug the pet, gently holding the neck with one hand. When you hug your pet this way, it not only reassures the pet, but also gives your hands enough flexibility to clean the ears.

Alternatively, you can also restrain a smaller animal by wrapping it around in a towel. Wrap the pet completely in the towel, allowing only the head and the tail to pop out. After the pet is completely wrapped, use the hugging maneuver to restrain it. You can use a soft cloth or a piece of gauze to clean the ears of your pet. However, in case the ears of your pet are infected or have mites, you may need a medicated cleaning solution as well. The cleaning solution allows the infection, dirt, and debris to come to the outer parts of the ear from where you can wipe them off with a cloth or a piece of gauze.

Do not use Q tips to clean pet ears, if you do not know the proper technique of using them. Since the ears of your pets are sensitive, putting in Q tips might damage them. Placing foreign objects in the ears, may permanently damage the ear canal of your pet.

Steps to follow to clean your pet’s ears:

• First clean the ears using a piece of gauze. Clean all the discharge which may be present on the surface of the ear.
• Straighten the ear and put in some cleaning solution, allowing the solution to go into the inner parts of the ear.
• Put the gauze inside the ear again and clean the debris.
• Once that is done, massage the base of the ear so that any solution which is still inside seeps out.