[nagdu] how to give medicine for ear infections
Tami Kinney
tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Thu Nov 24 17:51:21 UTC 2011
Julie,
I've been too busy and sleep deprived because of the puppy to write
about her. /lol/
Alize, Zay for short, is a heeler mix puppy, just 8 weeks old. Her
mother was taken from a homeless girl, and the 8 puppies were given to
foster families for bottle feeding and raising. The couple who raised
Zay and her siblings took 4 of the siblings, nursing them back to
health. Then the last sunny day we had, they brought them to the dog
park to see how they did with other dogs... Which they all handled quite
well because the couple also has 4 adult dogs who are rescues and have
health problems, I guess, but don't show it at all because they look
very healthy. Wow! Anyway, we got a chance to watch the pups go around
with the people and their big pack, and I kept thinking how DD needs a
new dog since Daisy has gone beyond the rainbow bridge. I had been
thinking a few days earlier that a heeler type dog would be a great
match for him. And, before the baby pups came to be gushed over, there
was a 12-week old Tennessee Treeing Walker hound pup with a very nice
family and a face exactly like Daisy's... So fate really pulled a number
on my judgment when suddenly there were puppies to rescue! /loll/ So
when DD came to pick us up, I exposed him to all the cuteness, and he
picked Zay. She looks very heeler, with an asymmetrical red mask over
her head and ears and red mottling through her white coat. She also
heels. /lol/ She settled right in like she had lived here all her life
and eerily copies some Daisy behaviors, so DD gets all misty about that
and we discuss the metaphysics of it all. He has finally stopped
calling everyone Daisy.
Anyway, Zay is very mellow and brave, afraid of nothing, which worries
me a bit because we are going to have to watch her until she gets some
maturity and recall. She was coming to her name at the park, so I use
kibble to reinforce that, along with lots of praise and smiles and all.
/smile/ She's picked up house training pretty quickly for a pup her age,
but we will be glad when she is 100 percent there! We spend a lot of
time working on "leave it" because those sharp little teeth are active
explorers all on their own! /lol/ Mitzi has been teaching her that a
poodle is not a woolly chew toy! /lol/ Also to play snark 'n bark like
she did with Daisy, which we would rather they didn't play because of
BB's weird schedule. /lol/
DD and I have decided that we are *way* too old for this thing, but we
are both quite attached. I think our little Zay is going to be a winner
if she doesn't drive us to our deaths in sleep-deprivation and annoyance.
Naturally, I am already planning her lifetime training and work... Well,
I just automatically use all the same commands with her I use with Mitzi
and that Daisy learned, so I hope to keep her busy by teaching her some
of the lower level service dog tasks for when h er dad is old and
decrepit. He assures me that she has already made him old and decrepit,
so there you have it. /lol/
Mitzi is funny. She was not too sure what to think of having this thing
come home to annoy her, since she was fine with being the only dog and
center of attention. I was motivated to get the pup to give her
something to play with and to give DD something to give attention to
before he spoils or smothers my guide dog rotten. /lol/ So Mitzi was
willing to share her water and food bowls, although she did seem a
little shocked when the tiny one just started eating. Then she shrugged
it off. Toys? No problem. Bones? Beyond the snark 'n bark game, where
she taunts the baby with the bone then snarks while the puppy barks, she
will share. She will even give her bone to the pup, or bring the pup
toys. Or put puppy toys back Anthe box. The snark 'n bark game isn't
really about possession, except that the bone is a token of the game...
So if the puppy isn't barking at her and pushing the boundaries to get
the bone, Mitzi will shove it at her to get her going. Sigh. We've been
working getting a quieter version of the game to happen.
What Mitzi absolutely not stand and will not stand for is when the
monster creature tries to horn in on her human attention time! Oh, no
way, no how! /lol/ She's eased up quite a lot already, except for when
the pup pushes the boundaries she sets. They need to establish those
boundaries, and Mitzi doesn't appear to be in any danger of hurting the
puppy. I still watch them pretty clsosely, though.
I noticed that after Daisy moved on, Mitzi settled in to that change
really quickly after I took her for a working jaunt to re-establish her
place in the household... The same happened after we went out for some
errands around town yesterday. So long as Mitzi is secure as the guide
dog, I guess, she is okay with the world. Funny p oodle! /smile/
I think that in a while, I will be able to write up a proper tribute to
Daisy and finish a silly thing I was head writing this spring just
before I felt the first warning signs that her back was getting
arthritic. It's still a little painful, but I'm getting there.
I keep reminding Mitzi that if she breaks her permanent stay young and
live forever command, I willhave her cloned and expect her to raise and
train herself from about that age. Mitzi does not find this amusing!
/lol/ Still, it's kinda nice to have a little companion puppy to play
with and do little training with instead of having to be uptight about
every little thing in case I make a mistake and ruin it as a guide dog.
I'm really curious to see what the small stuff picks up from watching
Mitzi work.
Anyway, that's the scoop so far. I'm sneaking in some computer time
while DD relaxes over coffee with his dogs. /smile/ Once he starts
cooking, I will be on puppy patrol again. /lol/ She will make me very
hungry, I am sure, for his wonderful tThanksgiving dinner. Sucks being
me, don't it? /lol/
Happy Thanksgivving! Enjoy dinner and your new freedom with your
brilliant boxer guide.
Tami
On 11/24/2011 05:40 AM, Julie J. wrote:
> I agree with what Tami does. I just wanted to add a couple of things.
> When I use the hold she describes with her arm around the dog, I
> position the dog next to the couch or something so they can't back out
> of my hold. The other thing I thought of is if your ear medication is a
> cream or ointment you could put it on your finger and then put it in the
> ear.
>
> And Tami, did I read your message correctly, you have a puppy? What
> gives? You can't get a puppy and not tell us all the details!
>
> Julie
>
>
> On 11/23/2011 5:57 PM, Tami Kinney wrote:
>>
>> Janice,
>>
>> Um... I just a few minutes ago treated the ears of an 8 week old that
>> didn't want to be held... Which is not the same as treating an adult
>> dog. /lol/ Then I treated Mitzi poodle, whose one ear was smelling a
>> little sweet (yeasty) before the puppy came into the house. Must be
>> the damp, I guess. Anyway, with both, I start with the "calming hold."
>> That is one arm over the dog's back, where I can grab a front leg to
>> keep the dog in place, or where I can lightly apply pressure with my
>> fingers to the back of the neck, just where the skull joins, like a
>> mommy dog schooling her puppies. I used this hold a lot on my wild and
>> crazy poodle child in high stimulus situations, keeping my hand over
>> her heart until it would slow down from hummingbird speed so that I
>> could work with her in a training way.
>>
>> So the calming hold, as I call it -- it may have another name in pack
>> theory, which I'm not a huge fan of unless I use bits and pieces of
>> it,. Anyway, by gently containing the dog, one can also stroke the
>> dog's ears in a calming way or rub the base of the ears in a calming
>> way. While speaking in a calm, loving voice, etc., etc. Until the dog
>> calms down. By having the dog against your body, you can tell when the
>> body relaxes and the heartbeat slows.
>>
>> Then you can gently praise and, since it sounds like Destiny is
>> resistant to having something in her ears, as who wouldn't be? --
>> stroke the flaps of her ears, feeling them for yourself and gradually
>> introducing her to the nozzle you're using to put medicine in her
>> ears, etc.
>>
>> You can tell when the medicine is in because you can smell it or feel
>> the damp... Also, Destiny will probably want to shake her head, so you
>> can hear the liquid.
>>
>> It all sounds horribly involved, but it is really not. The first
>> couple of times I had to put medicine in Mitzi's ears for a puppy
>> yeast infection, I found it all very traumatic. I tried having my
>> neighbor and her daughter observe and assist, but they're not exactly
>> farm girls and ran out of the house screaming. /lol/ This motivated me
>> and Mitzi both to work it out our own selves. The neighbor and the
>> daughter gradually then became brave enough to observe the process
>> without shrieks or flight. /lol/ They may have been motivated by my
>> calm description of treating farm animal injuries when I was younger
>> than the daughter... They indicated strongly that they did *not* want
>> to hear about it. Teethe.
>>
>> Anyway, with the new puppy, DD did the first couple of treatments, but
>> I decided to do it myself this afternoon, and it all seemed to go
>> will. Stuff got in the ears, and I managed not to inadvertently stick
>> the nozzle of the liquid cleaner I'm using for that. Mitzi, of course,
>> is not happy with having her ears treated, but she hold still under
>> protest because she knows it is futile to protest. /lol/
>>
>> Anyway, I don't know if that is at all helpful, but that's what I do.
>> Trying to hold a full grown lab (or am I misremembering Destiny's
>> breed?) would be a bit much for me, but the technique I use did work
>> with Daisy when we were getting militant with what had been long term
>> ear infections for her. She took too people to hold and treat, with
>> Mitzi giving moral support, but we were able to get the job done until
>> Daisy decided that it wasn't that bad and would just hold still for
>> it. Whew!
>>
>> So working up to the actual application of the medication with Destiny
>> is probably your best bet, even though it is likely to be a
>> frustrating process at first. Based on my experience and opinion, at
>> least. A dog's ear canal is longer than a humans, so I probably don't
>> need to worry about causing real harm as much as I do. Even so, I
>> would rather err on the sie of caution when I'm sticking something
>> into my dog's ear canal. Yikes!
>>
>> Good luck, and I hope Destiny feels better soon...
>>
>> Tami On 11/23/2011 12:08 PM, Janice Toothman wrote:
>>> Does anyone have suggestions on how to hold a dog that doesn't want to
>>> be held so that I can put ear drops in her ear for an ear infection. I
>>> am never even sure if I get the medicine in correctly positioned in her
>>> ear. So any suggestions will be helpful. I am also supposed to clean her
>>> ear more frequently- another chore that she doesn't like.
>>> Janice and Destiny
>>>
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