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Ears after swimming
How to clean your dog's ears after the beach
Every spaniel, Lab and doodle that swims off Cape Ann comes out with water and sand in a floppy, warm ear, which is what an infection likes. Cleaning after the swim, gently and not too often, is the habit that keeps vet visits rare.
What you need
A vet-recommended cleaner, cotton pads, a towel and a dog that has been handled
Buy the cleaner from your vet or on your vet's say-so, and use nothing else in the ear: not water, not a kitchen-cupboard mixture. Cotton pads or gauze, never cotton swabs, which push debris deeper and can damage the canal. A towel for the drying and for the shake that follows. A handful of treats, because an ear massage should be something a dog leans into.
The dog has to be willing. If your dog will not let you lift an ear flap and hold it for ten seconds, do a week of touch-and-treat on the ears before you open a bottle. Have a look inside first, in daylight: a healthy ear is pale, clean and nearly odorless. Anything red, swollen, sore, dark with discharge or strong-smelling is not a cleaning job.
- A cleaner your vet has recommended
- Cotton pads or gauze, never swabs
- A pale, clean, painless ear to start with
The method
Dry at the water, fill and massage at home, let the dog shake, wipe the flap
At the beach or the lake, the first clean is a towel: the dog out of the water, each flap lifted and the inside dried, then the head rubbed so the dog shakes. That alone removes most of what causes trouble. At home, within the hour, comes the cleaner. Lift the flap, fill the canal until the liquid is visible, and massage the base of the ear where it meets the skull.
You will hear a squelch; that is the cleaner doing the work. Twenty seconds, then let go and step back, because the shake is the second half of the method and it will happen. Wipe the flap and the entrance with a pad round your finger, only as deep as the finger goes on its own. One ear, treat, the other ear, treat. Done in three minutes.
- 01
At the water: lift each flap, towel the inside dry, rub the head until the dog shakes.
- 02
At home: lift the flap and fill the canal with the vet-recommended cleaner.
- 03
Massage the base of the ear for twenty seconds until it squelches.
- 04
Step back and let the dog shake; the cleaner carries the debris up and out.
- 05
Wipe the flap and the entrance with a cotton pad on your finger, never deeper, then treat.
Where it goes wrong
The swab, the daily scrub, the homemade mix and the ear that needed a vet
Cotton swabs cause more ear damage than swimming does. They pack debris down the canal and can hurt the ear drum in a dog that jerks its head. The second problem is over-cleaning. A healthy ear does not need cleaning every day; a dog that swims twice a week needs it after the swim, and a dog that does not swim may need it monthly or never.
The third is the homemade mix, and the fourth is the most serious: cleaning an ear that is already infected. Head shaking, scratching, a tilt, a smell, redness, discharge, or a dog that yelps when the ear is touched all mean a vet appointment, not a bottle. Ear mites sit in that same list; the AVMA's page on external parasites describes what they look like and why a vet has to treat them.
- Never a cotton swab
- After swims, not every day
- Nothing homemade in the canal
- Shaking, smell, redness or pain: the vet, today
The Cape Ann version
Salt water, sand, the humid August ear and the floppy breeds we see most
Salt water dries the skin inside the ear and sand rides in with it, so the after-swim towel matters more here than at a freshwater pond. Winter is the swimming season for dogs on Gloucester's beaches, October 1 to April 30, Good Harbor on even days and Wingaersheek on odd, and a cold wet ear on a January walk back to the car stays wet a long time; dry it before the drive.
Summer swims happen at the Annisquam, at ponds and in our splash pools, and August humidity keeps a floppy ear damp all day. The dogs our groomers see with ear trouble are the ones you would guess: cocker and springer spaniels, Labs, goldens and doodles, all with heavy flaps that seal the canal. Ticks, active April to November, also favor the ear fold, one more reason to look inside after every walk.
When to hand it to us
A bath that ends with dry ears, and the vet for anything red
A bath at Dogtown is priced by size from $55 and ends with a blow-dry, which for a floppy-eared swimmer means going home with ears that are actually dry. Ask the groomer at pick-up what they noticed inside the flap; a groomer handles dozens of ears a week and will say if one looked worth a vet's eye. Grooming needs no evaluation and is booked online or in the app.
What the studio will not do is treat an ear. Infections, mites, foreign bodies such as a grass seed, and a dog in pain go to your vet, and out of hours to the 24-hour Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital in Woburn. Gloucester's list of local and emergency veterinary offices is on the city site. A groom is booked after the ear is healed, not to help it.
- Bath by size from $55 with a blow-dry
- Ask the groomer what the ear looked like
- Infections and pain: your vet, not the studio
At Dogtown
Dry ears, clean coat
A studio bath with a blow-dry after the swim, and daycare days with pools that end with a towel.
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about this
Short, complete answers you can act on today. More in the full FAQ.
How often should I clean my dog's ears?
Can I use water or a homemade solution to clean the ears?
What are the signs of an ear infection in a dog?
Does a Dogtown bath include ear cleaning?
More questions? Read the full FAQ
Sources
- AVMA external parasites
- Gloucester beaches
- Gloucester vets list
- Massachusetts Veterinary Referral Hospital
Rules and dates change. We re-check every beach, licensing and ordinance page each spring and fall; the source above is the current word.
Keep reading
Next step
Dry at the water, clean at home.
Book a bath by size online or in the app after the next swim, and take anything red or sore to your vet first.
- 01Free evaluationWeekdays 6:30 – 9:30 AM
- 02Book a dayOnline, in the app or by phone
- 03Play, rest, repeatReport card at pick-up
