the tail of the ear...

​One time I had a terrible infection…..in my poodle’s ear.
The way I discovered it sounds like something out of a horror movie. Here’s how it went down.
I groomed my poodle, everything went well, she looked gorgeous. She didn’t scratch her topknot and a day later every hair still looked perfect.
A week went by, I checked her wrappers and her topknot a couple times a day, everything was on track.
It looked like coat change time was over!
Then I put her in the tub, time for her weekly bath. I took out her ear wrappers.
A soft whimper…
Did I really hear that?
“Oh no!” I thought. She never makes a sound. But as I reached for the ear again she closed her eye as if anticipating the pain. How is that possible. Everything was fine. I had been checking her daily.
That could only mean one thing.
INFECTION!!!
But I had to check to be certain. I had to smell it.
It turns out I didn’t even need to smell it. I knew as soon as I flipped the ear over. The smell hit me in the face. You couldn’t miss it.
I did take her to the vet as I was concerned it had sprung up so quickly and was causing her pain.
“Yep, it’s infected all right…..”
My vet was the only happy party in this situation.
I was so mad at myself. “How could this happen? I teach grooming for %#$@@ sake. I should know better.”
And I should have know better. The weather had been changing a lot. The humidity was up and down AND I had changed ear cleaner.
Like an idiot I had assumed because she left her hair alone her ears were fine too. I no-doubt grew myself a fine little colony of yeast.
The lesson I learned is to sweat the small stuff when it comes to our dogs. Just because it all looks good on the outside doesn’t mean it is all good on the inside.
Thankfully the vet was smarter than I and in three days she was feeling much better and the smell had gone away.
Hopefully because you’ve read this you won’t make the same mistake I made.
Cheers,
Allison
PS check out our "Ultimate Guide to Handling Your Dog" and join our members only Facebook group for weekly tips/tricks and free coaching........ and as always send an email to ask a question (I’ll even answer the ones about ears)