My old dog has a painful ear infection and won't let me touch it.

Question

We have a 13 year old Lab/Husky mix. She is a outside dog, she has always been in the fenced back yard. However she is not leash trained and she will nip at you if you try. So we have a huge concern because she has something going on in her ear. A lot of head shaking rubbing her ear on the fence. And discharge and smell. We have noticed that at times there is blood around her ear. And she wont let you clean it or even look in her ear. So we are looking for some kind of pain relief. Help! Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Female | spayed | 45 lbs

Christie Long, DVM · Accepted Answer

This is a tough problem. Pain relief will not address the underlying problem, which is likely to be an ear infection. All of the signs you've described point to it - the discharge, the shaking and rubbing the head on the fence - and there is unfortunately no way to get those to resolve under most situations without topical treatments. I would suggest finding a housecall veterinarian in your area who can come out, give Macy some drugs to induce sedation, examine and clean the inside of the ear, and prescribe appropriate therapy. There is even a treatment that can be packed into the ear and that lasts for a week, so you won't have to be constantly re-treating her, since she doesn't like to be restrained.

My old dog has a painful ear infection and won't let me touch it.

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