# Ear Wax/ Gunk



## lord brush (Oct 22, 2015)

Our lads ears seem to bothering him recently.

I know V's are more prone to excess wax given their "flappy", big ears and love of playing in water, mud and everything else. 

I do try to clean the outer canal with wipes etc, and I have managed to remove some considerably sizeable black balls of wax before now, but I think he'd benefit from a trip to the vet for a good clean out. I'm sure they'll have to sedate him to do the job properly.

Anyone else had these issues? Any tips on keeping ears cleaner? I've tried the canker powder, but not sure it does much for wax accumulation.


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

Thornit seems to break down the canker far better than anything vet has given us for Elvis's ears, at a fraction of the price too, I do use cotton buds too and take great care not to compress wax even further down


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Must be more of a wirehair thing. 
Mine don't normally have much ear wax.


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

Plucking out the ear hair helps a little. With Scout, I've noticed her ears get gunkier from eating poultry, so there might be a food sensitivity in the mix, too.


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

TexasRed said:


> Must be more of a wirehair thing.
> Mine don't normally have much ear wax.


you could be right there TR, Ruby, being a lot shorter haired has never had any build up of wax, her ears are always clean as a whistle and they both eat and exercise the same


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## lord brush (Oct 22, 2015)

I do find when I do manage to get hold of a ball of wax, it ain't coming out without the ear hair it's attached to! 

Yes, my concern is that perhaps wax has become compressed- maybe as a result of me trying to extract wax, or there's another foreign body down there. 

It's driving the poor lad mad at the moment. Vets tomorrow methinks.


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## cuddlebuglove (Apr 27, 2014)

I am sorry to hear that. I make excessive wax as well and having turkey baster flush water down your ear canal by a specialist doctor and seeing hard chunks in a receptacle is NO fun. Every month, within the first 3 days, I have to put medicated ear drops, 3 or 4 in each ear. That stops the build up. It sounds like your Vet will have to prescribe a routine to prevent the wax from building up deep down.

Please let us know how the treatment goes. Prayers sent for both of you.


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## lord brush (Oct 22, 2015)

So we took Riley to the vet on Friday night and he was a good boy- let the girl look down his ears without much fuss. 

He does have infection- in both, although the left was worse. Now on antibiotic drops and she also gave us a pre-medication cleaning solution that seems to make the canal very greasy and helps extract a lot of the gunk out.

She did say- as I kind of knew already, that his ears where very hairy so once the infection is cleared, I think we'll revert back to the Thorite to try and keep the ear cleaner, and hopefully it'll help with the removal of excessive hair in his ears.


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## cuddlebuglove (Apr 27, 2014)

Riley sure deserves lots of extra TLC, for poise and bravery if he can't have treats. Thank you for the update. Hope for a full recovery soon and successful prevention.


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## lord brush (Oct 22, 2015)

Well, ears seem to have cleared-up now 

When we saw the vet last, they remarked how hairy his ears (canal), were and suggested I try to remove some of the hair. I wasn't sure how Riley would respond to such aural invasion, but wow he let me pluck that stuff out no problem at the weekend. With a little help from Thornit powder sprinkled in the night prior to plucking, it came out surprisingly easily and I was quite shocked how much actually came out. Hopefully his ears will self-clean a bit better now 8)


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

Glad it's cleared up! Tweezers help with grip as well. I'll have to order the thornit powder. Scout strongly dislikes rinses in her ears.


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## b4ruby (Sep 3, 2016)

I found Thornit on the internet years ago when we had our Standard Poodle. He had a number of ear infections due to the hair in his ears. Plucking and adding Thornit kept his ears dry and infection free. Our vet and breeder had never heard about it and now they too use it. We had to order it from England because it wasn't available in the states. I love the look of the Wirehaired Vizsla.


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

b4ruby, Bob found a US source for it. http://www.vizslaforums.com/index.php/topic,38369.msg276305.html#msg276305


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