We all know that humans can get yeast infections, but there is also quite a high rate of yeast infections in dogs too, and in particular there are lots of occurences of yeast infections in dog ears. This website will show you exactly how you can diagnose a dogs yeast infection and how you can treat it yourself at home.
What causes a yeast infection in dog ears?
Yeast infections are caused by the Malassezia fungus becoming out of control and growing rapidly on your body. As with humans, dogs ears also produce wax in order to keep the ear clean and protected, however this make the ear into a warm, sticky and moist place that bacteria and fungus spores such as Malassezia thrive in - it is their ideal environment, and this is why so many dogs suffer with yeast inefctions in their ears.
From the many tests over the years that have been carried out on this, it seems that dogs that have allergies are the most at risk from getting a yeast infection in their ears.
What are the symptoms of a yeast infection in a dogs ear?
There are numerous syptoms that your dog can show when he/she has a yeast infection in the ear, but the most noticeable and comon of all the yeast infection symptoms in dogs are:
- Increased ear wax production in the ears, which may often be a pink/brown colour and have a bad odour.
- Ear tissue may become thicker and more sponge like, your vet will be able to determine this with a magnifying device.
- Your dog will be constantly scratching its ears - itching is a common symptom of a yeast infection in dog ears.
How is a dogs yeast infection diagnosed?
Whilst you can fairly accurately diagnose your dogs yeast infection yourself using the symptoms above, your vet will need to have the overall say when examining your dog. They will look at all the above symptoms of a yeast infection in your dogs ear and will also take an ear wax sample for analysis. The yeast will need to be cultured in a petri dish for the test, and this may take between 10 - 14 days to complete and get the results back.
How can I treat my dogs ear yeast infection myself at home?
1.) Wash your dogs eats out with a gentle cleaning solution. Using warm soapy water will do the trick (you can also get over the counter treatments such as Malacetic Otic and DermaPet which also work very well).
2.) To control your dogs ear itching, apply an antihistimine such as Benadryl which will ease their suffering significantly.
3.) Apply any drugs/antibitotics that the vet may prescribe.
4.) Usually this will take up to 3 weeks until the yeas infection has gone from your dogs ears.
After doing all of this, your dog should now be free of yeast infection in the ear and will be their usual, happy and playful self again!
Yeast Infection Dog Ears
