Dogs World

With the arrival of warm weather in the surrounding hills and parks of our cities are appearing different herbs and weeds that germinate in the spring and the first rays of sun. These plants often display sets of spikes to be shed from the plant as it dries, the wind or the brush of passing animals and people.

When one of these pins goes to our sock, the only problem that will cause us trouble off our shoes in order to extract the stem and continue our walk. Because we walk upright, our heads are well above the pins. Not so with our dogs , and that however great the race, always walk through the undergrowth of the forests and parks with their heads down and brushing with everything in its path.

How do you know who has an ear?

When our dogs roam these places make this brush off their ears and sometimes end up in your inner ear . This can cause serious damage , because if we do not act and let them stay there, we run the risk of causing great pain to the animal. Often they end up infected ears and then it would be absolutely necessary surgery to remove them.
It is very easy to detect if your dog has been introduced a spike in your ear. In addition to making continuous shaking of the head (similar to when they are drying after bathing), we see that the dog leans over the side head ear which has entered the ear, as if listening to the ground.

The steps you must follow

Once we have identified the problem, we will immediately bring down the animal on the floor with the affected ear upward, carefully removing the ear and the hair by hand. With the help of a flashlight or bright light, try to locate it . We just need to try to recover if it is accessible to our fingers. Never, I repeat, never introduce anything (much less sharp such as tweezers) in the ear of the animal. This could give a shake and cause the object in a very serious damage to your ear.
If you do not see the spike or is too deep to reach with our fingers, we immediately take our pet to a veterinarian to remove it. It's not a matter of life or death, but with the passing of the hours the discomfort turned into pain and be more difficult to remove.

Once at the vet?

Once at the vet may be necessary to immobilize the animal under anesthesia to make safer and less painful operation. This always involves a risk, but I think it is perfectly acceptable, since the anesthetic rarely causes allergic outbreaks that may complicate the operation.
After removing the pin and our animal recovered from anesthesia, does not require any special care, except that our vet otherwise. I advise my clients do not walk their dogs in areas with high weeds at this time and always keep your ear and your pets ears clean of wax and dirt. With gauze and serum requires no more than five minutes per week.