Ear Wash

[caveman22]

Back in elementary school my swim teacher gave us the formula for swimmers ear wash. It was just a combination of water, vinegar and alcohol. It seemed to work great for me.........what about for dogs? I will admit that I have used the solution on my dogs in the past to clean and for preventive medicine. I used a fine mist spray bottle and was very generous in the application. Other than the vinegar smell they seemed to enjoy it.

[BigDawgBarkin]

That same solution minus the water is what we use on our dogs. The alcohol disinfects, cleans and diplaces any water while the vinegar keeps the ears acidic to prevent infections. We usually wipe it on with a cotton ball then wipe out the excess.

[wvvet]

Most ear cleaning solutions are alcohol or vinegar based. They tend to work very well to help break up dirt and grime. They also evaporate quickly thereby leaving the ear dry so an infection won' t set up. One word of caution though. If you don' t know what you are doing, home-made products can actually make things worse or even set up an infection. Commerical cleaners are a couple of bucks and you can pick them up just about anywhere that sells pet supplies. Never understood why anyone would take the risk just to avoid a couple of bucks. Doesn' t make sense. A $4.00 bottle of a generic ear cleaner will clean about 20 dogs ears.