Saturday, July 10, 2010

My ear


Can you tell in the photo that my ear is bothering me? I am walking around with my head tilted and my ear down all the time. Sometimes I shake my head and occasionally I scratch at my ear. This has been going on since Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday we went for a walk in some tall-ish grass and then went to the beach and I swam once (no dunking my head - just lots of splashing). Shortly after we got home, mom found a dog tick on the wall upstairs. She gave me a bath and brushed me all over and saw nothing (I am on Frontline too). So did something bite my ear, did I get water in there, did some grass thingy get in, do I have an allergy?

We went to the vet yesterday (yes, 2nd time in 3 weeks) and he looked in my ear and saw absolutely nothing! No infection, no redness, no foreign matter, no water, no wax, no gunk, no smell. He told my mom that my ears were completely clean. I was nervous so I kept my ears up and ready the whole time I was there, so the vet never saw the pitiful looks I give mom all day long. The vet said I may have an allergy and was I licking my feet or anything? Mom said no. He said some times dogs with allergies may shake their heads. He sent us home with an ear cleaner (Epi Optic) and told mom to clean my ear every day for a week and see if it improves. If not, he wants to try an antihistamine (thinking it is an allergy).

Anybody have any ideas? Are Shelties prone to this kind of thing? Mom is worrying herself sick because I look so sad and because I want her to fix my ear and she doesn't know how. Wish we knew if this was some temporary fluke-ish thing that would be over soon or what! I am still eating fine and my balance is fine. I can do my tricks and did a little agility yesterday. And I instigate play but don't feel like playing for long. And barking seems to make me shake my head more.



Gotta zoom!

Ricky



12 comments:

Morganne said...

Do you have foxtails where you live? Or maybe a small grass seed?

Poor Ricky!

Sara said...

Oreo does this with his ears after getting his ears overly wet sometimes. A few days of zymox always clears the problem up. Seems like Ricky's issue may be different though.

Maybe a bug flew in and bit the inside of Ricky's ear? That could be quite irritating.

I hope, whatever it is, Ricky is feeling better soon. Keep us updated! Poor baby.

Katrin said...

Poor Ricky! Monty, my corgi, will do this for a while after he's been wading if he gets water splashed into his ears. So maybe that was it.

Diana said...

Miley does that too with her ear. Sometimes I clip the little hairs that are around the ear thinking maybe they are bothering the inside of her ear. Diana

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

Sorry -

No help from us -

Sibe Vibes heading your way fur your ears to be YOUR ears again soon!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

wow, how strange, I have had the ears look all clear when an infection is just starting and just can not be seen so I personally would do what you are doing and keep a close eye on it ;-(, so sorry Ricky! Hope the ear is better soon.

Morgan in Pittsburgh said...

we can't help either. We haven't had any ear issues - yet.
maybe just keeping it real clean with that stuff for awhile will help. We sure hope so.
Your pals, Morgan & Maisie

Sagira said...

Hmm...that is very strange. Hopefully the cleaner they gave you will do the trick.

I bet it is hard to find ticks on you with all the long beautiful fur huh?

Pepper said...

We can't offer advice either sorry but really hope that it's nothing too sinister and that you're feeling beter quick smart!

Nicki said...

If the ear looks clean then that's a good sign that it's not too serious. Cleaning is always a good idea. Sounds like you are on the right track!

Unknown said...

Ricky - I often seem to have a problem with my ear - always the same ear - and there is nothing "officialy" wrong with it after a vet check, although I will hold it a bit funny a lot of the times and shake my head a lot. My human just notices that I have a lot more "gunk" in that ear so she tries to clean it out more often. It's not infected gunk or anything - just usual ear dirt - my other ear seems to be naturally a lot cleaner - so maybe it's just one of those things? Does your "bad" ear get more gunk too? My human finds if she cleans my bad ear out more often, I don't hold it funny so much...

Slobbers,
Honey the Great Dane

Abby and Aiden said...

Hope you ear is getting better!