How often do you clean your Pyr's ears?

[pyr4me]

When I adopted Jenny last year her ears were infected and after a cleaning and ear drops regimen prescribed by my vet, the infection cleared up and she did not need further tx. I do, however, continue to clean her ears weekly, and find that one of her ears tends to have more build-up than the other. It is not red, Jenny does not scratch at it, it doesn't smell, and is easy enough to clean. But reading some other posts about ears made me wonder...is this a normal amount of ear care for Pyrs (and other dogs with "flat" ears) or is this something that I should be more concerned about? 

[People Whisperer]

I almost never clean Lily's ears. When she was a pup and was playing with other pups a lot her ears did tend to get dirty but now they are clean at all times. I think it was 4 months ago the last time I cleaned her ears
I think genetics and diet play major role in ear infections

[pyr4me]

I don't think it is her diet at this point, she has been on Wellness Core for some time now.

[People Whisperer]

If it doesn't bother her and she doesn't shake her head it's not a big deal...she could be laying in the yard on the same side and get her ear dirty, who knows! LOL

[pyr4me]

No, it doesn't bother her at all. It's not actually dirt per se, but waxy build-up. She is indoors and doesn't lay outside. I don't mind cleaning her ears and with copious treats on hand, she doesn't mind either. 

[patrick]

I almost never clean the ears- ear wax actually protects the ear from infection>  If the dog starts scratching his ears then I clean  I haven't had an ear infection in several years !
Just as an FYI a friend of mine religiously cleaned his ears every day and ended up in the hospital with a severe infection  The ear specialist told him to not clean his ears at all and to leave the wax in there  A little extreme but the message is there.

[sc.trojans]

You shouldn't ever have to clean a dog's ears if healthy. Once we resolved the diet issue with my rescued golden as a puppy (causing yeasty ears) she has never had another issue in 7 years and cleaning is not necessary, or healthy to do.

[maxsmom]

I don't clean ears anymore.  ChiChi, on the other hand has to clean everyone's ears at least every other day.  At least she only licks the flaps and does not get down inside them.
Kathy

[pyr4me]

You shouldn't ever have to clean a dog's ears if healthy. Once we resolved the diet issue with my rescued golden as a puppy (causing yeasty ears) she has never had another issue in 7 years and cleaning is not necessary, or healthy to do.

She is on a grain-free diet already (Wellness Core)--what would be my next step to determine the root cause of this? She regularly has quite a bit of build-up in one ear. How would I tell if it is just waxy build-up or yeast?

[sc.trojans]

Your vet can culture the ear material to determine if it is yeast or bacteria.  Yeast is usually easy to tell however - it is dark and slimy/waxy with a strong odor. The healthy ear has no detectable odor at all, so this is easy to tell if you put your nose to it.

Grain free is a good start, but any food intolerance can create a yeast imbalance in the system so the key is to find out if there is something causing this intolerance.  You can't do this on a processed food. You would have to start feeding a homemade elimination diet - starting with one protein and one non-protein for at least a week.  Then adding one ingredient at a time that is in the dog food until you identify the problem.

If it is bacterial however, this can be general allergy - environmental for example.  Many mistakenly believe there is a specific active infection - but bacteria can also easily grow out of balance if there have been antibiotics administered in the past, or other drugs that wipe out the system, without then the use of probiotics to replenish the system...alway s good to use probiotics like Primal Defense (Garden of Life) and I would recommend this as well given the situation.