Irritated Puppy Ear Please help / Picture - Page 1

 Need a little help from you guys on this. 6 1/2 old female pup, ears have been up all along except for some bilateral up and down during teething. Two days ago one ear went down for no apparent reason. We took the puppy to the vet when we couldn't find anything obviously wrong. On exam the puppy was bothered when the exam light or when a finger went into the affected ear. The vet said she couldn't see anything wrong, ears clean, no inflammation, no foreign bodies yet agreed something about that ear is bothering the puppy. She could see good down to the ear drum. Temp 101.4, teething completed, no inflammation around the teeth. 

Any ideas what is wrong with her or what could be causing this? 

She could be getting an infection with no obvious signs yet. Another possibility is an insect sting or bite. I've seen many dogs hold their ear funny after a bite or sting. How long has it been down? Can you post a pic?

 

 It's been two or three days. I can't post a picture, not today at least but it's not floppy down like a lab, it's down to the side sort of. It looks a little like the ear in the lack of pigment thread but better than that, not as floppy.
What kind of sting or bite could do this? Would it have to be on the ear? or could it be shoulder blades or something like that? 

I tend to agree with KCzaja, but maybe others have different ideas that they could help the OP with?

Depending where you are I have seen ears be effected by a tick do that so check for external parasites. Just a thought.

 Thanks for the responses. I wish a few more people would chime in here. We have so many breeders and knowledgeable people here.

Here's an update. Now the ear is reddened. On Sat when I took her to the vet, the vet clipped the hair from the inside of both ears and at that time there were no bites. Now, the affected ear is fairly reddened and there is now a bump on the inner side of the ear about half way up. There is also a bump on the outer side of the ear that looks like it may have been a nic from the clippers. The vet started her on Rimadyl yesterday in case there was an muscle injury. I checked for ticks and there were none.

Did she hit the ear on something? As in maybe running and smacked the ear into something? My dog has dones things like that or shook when he was next to something and smacked it into the table. Just a thought. A friend of mine told me that her dog has some ear issues and she put a few drops of castor oil in it and it cleaned up. Maybe try some of that on the area.A picture would really help though.

Mix some white vinegar half and half with warm water and use a cotton ball to swab her ear...squeeze a few drops down into the ear and massage the base of it.  My dog periodically gets irritated ears and the vet can find nothing wrong.  When I notice her shaking her head or digging at her ears I get busy and it immediately relieves her.  Not sure what or why but it sure makes a difference with my girl.  Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Sorry to hear about your pup having problems with her ear. At the very base of the ear canal where it is deepest and curves around sometimes a little bit of wax can lodge there. It's hard to see and even a little bit can cause discomfort to some dogs. It may be worth a try to use some canaural, put a few drops in and massage the base of the ear gently to dislodge any wax that could be there, then gently wipe out any residue with cotton wool. I hope this helps and I hope you pup feels better soon.

 There is some good news and some bad news. The good news she has had her ear back up when she sees something since yesterday. She wasn't doing that when this started. The bad news is it must be itchy because the irritation and redness is worse looking. I've been using the vinegar and water and I checked around real good where you said to look GSDalways but nothing was there. It was a good idea and one I hadn't thought of. She has a fairly good sized scab in the inside part of her ear where the bump was a couple days ago. 

No, I don't think she hit her ear on something while running but another puppy had a hold of her shoulder area when they were running around prior to this. That won't happen again. I wonder if a muscle sprain could have indirectly bothered her ear initially? Does that make sense? I'm looking into the Canaural I'm not familiar with it.