Sunday, February 3, 2013

GiGi and her ears

For the last week, GiGi has been mysteriously yelping.

I say mysteriously because she'd do it for no apparently reason. Another dog walking by. Randall carrying her out to potty. Me washing off her mouth after yogurt. Nothing really made sense as the trigger or I thought it was caused by something else.

Until last night when I looked in her ears. Now why in the hell I've had that dog a month and never peered inside is beyond me. That's normally a part of the bath routine. But I hadn't, and there has been absolutely none of the usual signs of ears causing problems. No head shaking or rubbing. No pawing at the ears. Nothing.

OHMIGOD.

I have never, and I mean NEVER seen the sort of ears this girl has. There is thick, dark, smelly wax literally coating the inside of her ears. Nastiest stuff I've ever seen. And if there's not some sort of infection in there, I'd be hugely surprised, but since she's on Clindamycin for her mouth and Prednisone for her anemia, I suspect it's being suppressed just enough not to cause any of the usual signs.

Last night, I had Randall hold her while I shined a spotlight in each ear and started cleaning them out...which she hated, of course.  I can tell this goes way down into the ear canal, and I won't start digging in there. That's for the vet. Once I got as much out as I could in one go, I dribbled in a 3:1 peroxide/water solution. I'm hoping that with that the the head shaking she did, it will loosen up more of the wax.

Today I'll take another run at them and see if I can't get more out.

I've got to call the clinic tomorrow to set up the time for the blood test. I'll let them know her ears are going to need attention, too. I'll tackle the stuff on the outside that I can get to easily, but she's going to need a vet to work on the rest, and probably prescribe some drops when she's done.

Other than that, little GiGi is doing really well. I've got her back down to 9.5 pounds from the 10 pounds she was at last week, and she looks really good. Despite some of the medical issues she has/has had, she is a very happy little girl.

I would love to get a few photos of her outside, but like every black and tan mini-smooth I've ever had here, she hates being outside. Hopefully we'll keep having good weather and I can manage to get her out there for more than 5 minutes. :)

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