What does normal healthy doggy ear wax look like? Smell like?

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

I am confused. I hear brown is normal. I hear brown is abnormal. I hear the ears dont smell at all. I hear they do have a smell. Abby has dark brown ear wax. Her ears smell like ... I dont know....hot wet dog? Frito feet? She does at times lay down and rub her ears with her paws - but is this pain ? Or itch? If you could all tell me your dogs normal ear wax color - and normal smell that would be helpful.

When Abby went for her 1st vet visit back at 8 weeks old he removed this same brown stuff with a swab, looked at it and threw it away. He didnt seem to care about it. Didnt say it was infection. But the breeder did say she at one time had all her dogs on a certain brand of dog food and they got yucky ears - but when she switched the food it cleared. That sounds weird to me and I cant see the connection between food and ears unless the food somehow caused yeast overgrowth. And if so what does yeasty wax look like?

[April Cliber]

LOL, Adina, scratch and sniff..... :o) Brown isn't always bad. Our labradoodle, Gracie almost always has some brown in her ears, but when they get infected, I know... Like Adina said you just get to know whats normal and what's not for your dog. It's not aways the same for each dog..... I'd get the brown out though, you don't want to leave it. Baby oil and the make up cotton pads work well. If the brown gets really thick or I notice a different smell then I think infection.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I can't really say what normal smells like but yeast in ears smells like baking yeast if that helps. My older dogs ears usually have a slight yeasty smell just before I clean them weekly. today I noticed that the new pups ears didn't smell at all but i cleaned them anyway to be on the safe side.

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

Thankyou for confirming they smell like frito feet or what I like to think of as hot wet dog. Isnt it hard do describe a smell. I do clean the brown gunk out with a baby wipe. Abby loves getting her ears cleaned - she sighs and kind of grunts and pushes her ear toward my finger. Funny that Sherlock doesnt get this. I wonder if it is breed related.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The only thing I can add is that you're right, food has very little to do with ears. I know that you hear that all the time, but your common sense is correct...it is weird and there is almost no connection. Some people think that foods that are higher in sugar, like beet pulp, can cause ear infections. But there is no scientific basis to that idea.
Now please excuse me, I have to go smell Jackdoodle's ears.

[Chris & Boys]

Hmmmm, my experience with Fozzy's ears, is that they smell sweet. Not putrid or bad, just sweet. And very lightly. And his ears have never been infected. So far, no big ear wax build up either.

[Adina P]

So maybe sweet (as I described the yeasty ear is wrong) ... but it's been so long I think I am not remembering correctly

[Linda,Yankee & Finn]

Yankee has had problems with ear infections. I use a cleaner that I got from the vet. You should probably clean once a week with cleaner and gauze. The vet told me that you can reach in as far as you can go and that you can't do any damage. When I do it, I can only go a certain distance and no more but you want to get as far as you can to get all the gunk.

I mean as far as your hand will go, not using an object like Q tips. His ears did smell pungent when he had an infection.

[Eva]

Hello,
The dreaded ear wax issue..... All I know from having 4 cocker spaniels with their bad ears is that with an infection odor is definately there. Once you know their "normal smell", when it's abnormal you will know. Kinda like with self breast exams..... when something is wrong you know it. Also with infection comes the shaking head, itching, and can usually see the red inflammation also
The food can definately make a change. My cocker had food allergies and how it showed up was with frequent ear infections and skin outbreaks.... so changing his diet helped immensly. Hope that helps. Eva
p.s. you had me laughing about frito smell.... that usually is with feet though, lol!!!

[Erin]

Last vet check-up with hershey, the vet brought in a couple assistants to smell hershey's ears. She apparently had a slight infection in the one, and the other smelled normal. Looking back I wish she would have made me smell them too, but she didn't seem to concerned about it, just showed me how i should clean them both.

I have a bottle of ear cleaner, and I soak a cotton ball in it. Then I stick it in the ear canal. I was worried, but the vet seemed to just get it down there as deep as she could. Then with the ear put back down in the normal hanging position, I give her a good rub and shake the ears around, so i can hear it squishy in there. The you take that cotton ball out, and replace it with a dry one, and do the same thing, soaking up the moisture in the ear canal. Hershey loves it, and it cleans out a fair amount of brown wax. This way I'm not shoving a q-tip or my finger in there and possibly damaging something.

I second the scratch and sniff. Perhaps we could have a poop database too, NOT scratch and sniff, but just pictures... normal and not normal ;o)

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

I will have to try this. Thanks Erin!

[Sheri & Murphy]

Murphy is free of stinky gooey ears!!! He is off gluten and grains...within a couple of days all ear problems are gone:o)

[Nelson, Rufus & KO]

I just got news form the vet that Nelson has a yeast ear infection most likely caused by gluten.

What kind of food are you feeding Murphy?