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My dog has a painful, smelly ear with colored discharge. What's wrong?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Maltese | Male | neutered | 11 years and 3 months old | 17 lbs

Ear infection brown black sometimes green and yellow ear eax constantly oozes accompanied by a bad smell. He always shakes his head and it hurts him

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3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Daniel Fonza, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on September 9th, 2017

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. From the pictures and your description, this certainly looks to be an ear infection. I would contact your veterinarian and schedule an appointment to have Harley examined. Your vet should perform an ear cytology to figure out what organisms are causing this problem. It may be bacteria or fungus or both causing this. Your veterinarian will be able to prescribe the most appropriate treatments once diagnosed. Most of the time an ear infection can be cleared up by using an ear flush and ear ointment inside the ear. Sometimes with bad enough infections and oral antibiotic, antifungal and anti-inflammatory need to be used. Again, your vet will know what's best for this particular problem. Before using any ear medications that you find over-the-counter, I would strongly suggest having a vet look in ear to ensure that your drum is intact because using medications in an ear with a ruptured eardrum may cause hearing loss or neurological abnormalities. I hope this helps! Please feel free to contact me with any other questions or concerns that you may have. I am also available via text or phone consultation if needed.

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    Answered By Kevin Sanada, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    This looks like a rather involved infections and should ideally be evaluated by a veterinarian, so they can identify the source of the infection and give the most appropriate medication. One of the best things you can do to help ear infections is flushing the ears regularly. For Harley, I recommend flushing the ear once a day for two weeks, then as necessary. You can buy the ear flush from the pet store and I put a link to a good video below that shows how to flush a dog's ear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_8f1fll42A However, this is no substitute for the vet, because there is usually a primary cause of the infection like allergies, or something stuck inside the ear. If the primary cause is not found and treated appropriately, then the infection will reoccur. Also, the infection may have damaged the ear drum, which can cause the infection to go much deeper and cause more problems. I hope that helps and Harley gets better soon.

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    Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

    Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

    Published on November 7th, 2017

    Poor Jasper! Ear infections are common in dogs, and are usually caused by an overgrowth of yeast or bacteria in the ear canal. He will need prescription ear drops to treat the infection, so I would recommend taking him to the vet for an exam as soon as you can. In the meantime, you can try cleaning his ears with an over-the-counter ear flush labeled for dogs - you should be able to find this at your local pet store. This will not treat the underlying infection, but it may help to remove some of the brown discharge and make him a bit more comfortable until you are able to see the vet.

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