Cystotomy is literally cutting into the bladder. Cysto = bladder; tomy = surgical incision. There’s really only one reason I do this: to remove bladder stones.

Even just typing the term “bladder stones” makes my urinary tract cringe. The things I have felt and seen. . . *shudder*

Usually it goes like this: a dog or cat is having urinary issues, and when I have a look at the urine I see crystals. I recommend a radiograph to check for stones to go along with those crystals. Sometimes the crystals have not yet partied hard enough to form stones. Sometimes I wonder how the animal didn’t have problems before now.  If there are stones, I have a chat with the owner about the risks of leaving the stones in there and recommend surgery to remove them. Sometimes I can use a diet to dissolve them, but even still there are risks in the waiting.

Sometimes, an animal presents because it CAN’T urinate, thanks to a rogue stone making a go for the outside world and getting caught up in the urethra. (cringing again. . . ). In these cases, I will pass a catheter to relieve the immediate obstruction, and strongly recommend surgery as soon as possible to prevent reoccurrence.

Most cringe worthy case I’ve had? Cat came in blocked, which is actually not very often because of stones, and I passed a catheter to relieve the obstruction and empty the bladder. Before I passed the catheter, when I palpated his abdomen I felt a ginormous, very firm, melon that was his bladder. After getting a decent amount of urine out, I had my hand on his belly over his bladder, only now instead of being a firm melon, it was a giant sack of marbles. (I just experienced a bladder cramp thinking back on that.) That cat had surgery, it was the most stones I have ever removed from a cat, and he’s doing fine now.  . . but I will never forget that moment. *shudder*

When we go to surgery, it’s pretty easy to find our target: the bladder is usually all kinds of angry. Instead of being a thin walled little balloon I encounter during a spay surgery, I am greeted by a thick, red, ugly, thing. I try to find a spot in the bladder wall to make a hole – being sure to be far away from ureters (the tubes that bring urine from kidneys to bladder. They’re kind of important, don’t want to cut those). You don’t want too big of a hole, but you need to be able to get your bladder spoon in there and scoop out your stones. Yeah, bladder spoon. It’s a surgical tool that’s a bit of a scoop, with a scraping edge of it, so you can scrape the bladder walls for grit. Using it makes all of the sphincters in my urinary tract spasm.

Cystotomies come in wide variety : lots of little stones, lots of big stones, a few big stones with lots of little tiny gritty stones, one giant stone, smooth stones, crazy spiked jaggedy stones that make your bladder cry in sympathy for the bladder you removed them from. You always have a ‘before’ radiograph so you have an idea what you’re going in for. And you ALWAYS should take an ‘after’ radiograph to make sure you didn’t leave behind anything. The last thing you want, after the clients pay $1000+, is for the animal to come back next week with the same problem because you left one errant stone behind.

Random factoid about cystotomies: If you read an old surgery textbook, it will advise you to take the bladder up out of the abdominal cavity and flip it over to you make your incision on the dorsal (top) side of the bladder. The idea being that when the animal is standing, this side will be at a lower risk for urine leakage because gravity brings the urine to the bottom of the bladder. If you read current surgery textbooks, this idea has been abandoned and we make the incision on the ventral (bottom) side of the bladder. Why? Because the bladder is a balloon. It’s only as big as the volume of urine in it requires. There’s no air bubble. The pressure of urine against the ‘top’ it the same as the ‘bottom’. Silly old school surgical ideas. . .

When you’re confident you removed all your stones and grit, and you close up that bladder, you leak test it. Even if you buy into the old school dorsal side idea, you fill the bladder with sterile saline, give a squeeze, and make sure nothing bubbles out your incision. Then you place the bladder back down inside the abdomen, close the animal up, and take that post-op radiograph (making sure nobody touches your surgical instruments so they remain sterile just in case you have to go back in. If you don’t keep your instruments sterile, I guarantee your post-op rad will tell you to go back in.)

Bladders are pretty awesome about healing up. Once, when I was a student, I assisted on a cystotomy on a dog who had had a cystotomy 2 days prior, but still had stones left. . . and we could only barely figure out where the original incision was.

For all my complaints of cringing, I kind of enjoy cystotomies. They have a certain satisfaction to them – I enjoy surgeries that have before and after pictures where you can see that you fixed the problem. Maybe that’s why I like castrations so much? You can’t tell by looking that I’ve removed the uterus, but an empty scrotal sack is pretty telling.

Or maybe I just enjoy ripping out testicles. Just because.

That summer of 2009, Bob helped me tackle my book of 500 cookie recipes. I think we got through maybe 20. I could go count, but I’m afraid to find out it was more like 4.

Our very first project together: Chocolate Raspberry Bars. I’m of the opinion you can’t go wrong with either chocolate or raspberries when it comes to desserts, so these seemed likely to be a success.

Reading up so he's ready to help out!

I took care of making the base, and baking the base. I also mixed the jam and liqueur and spread that over the base.

Bob’s job was the processing of the finely ground almonds, egg whites, sugar and almond exrtract.

Being careful not to fall into the tasty mix!

He felt that after such a good job, he deserved a sip treat or two.

Sampling the liqueur, bit of a lush he is. . .

Chocolate! Om nom nom!

After pouring Bob’s handy work over the jam, and sprinkling with almond flakes, the whole thing went back in the oven. When it came out, Bob was pretty pumped about the great job we did!

Field of deliciousness!

Before sharing these with anyone, as it was a new recipe for us both, we had to taste test. Happy to report they were absolutely delicious.

Have to test the finished product!

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to try ‘em yourself!

Preheat your oven to 325^oF

Line a 13×9 inch baking pan with aluminum foil.

Base: Sift  1 cup all purpose flour with 2 tabsp unsweetened cocoa powder and ¼ tsp salt into a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, beat ½ cup of softened butter, ½ cup of granulated sugar, and ½ tsp of vanilla at high speed until creamy. Mix in the dry ingredients. Firmly press the mixture into the prepared pan to form an even layer and prick all over with a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

Increase oven temperature to 375^oF.

Filling: Mix ½ cup raspberry preserves with 1tbsp raspberry liqueur in a small bowl and spread it evenly over the base. Sprinkle with 1cup of semisweet/dark chocolate chips.  Process 1.5 cups of finely ground almonds with 4 large egg whites, 1 cup white sugar, and ½ tsp of almond extract in a food processor or blender until well blended. Pour the mixture over the preserves and sprinkle with 2 tbsps of flaked almonds.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Using the edge of the aluminum foil as handles, lift the whole kit and caboodle onto a rack and let cool completely.

Remove the foil and cut into bars. Find people to share them with before you eat them all yourself.

My least favourite surgery is pretty much the exact opposite of one of my most favourite: amputation. It’s not that I don’t want to be able to allow an animal to keep all 4 of its legs. . . but I really don’t like orthopaedics. Specifically, I dislike repairing fractures. I find it frustrating. It can be incredibly rewarding, but very rarely do the two feelings balance out in the favour of rewarding.

Now, we don’t do a lot of fracture repair at my clinic. It can be tricky, finicky business. We try to stick to simple fractures. Anything overly complicated we insist on referring to an actual board certified surgeon. I actually offer referral to all fractures, because the surgeons who do nothing but surgery and have all the fancy equipment are probably going to do a better job. However, sometimes we can offer an alternative to getting your pet off The Rock, and some people appreciate this. Some people need this.

A lot of the fracture repairs we do involve plating. A metal  plate with holes in it is screwed into the bone spanning across the fracture. I don’t do this. I will assist my boss when he does this, and that is where I draw the line. I have no interest in doing this. It seems so aggravating – picking the right plate, the right screws, getting the fracture reduced (aka putting the bone back together) and keeping it that way while you DRILL HOLES IN THE BONE (this would be on the list of things that give me the heebie jeebies). When I’m the one holding the broken bone in place for drilling, I’m afraid the drill is going to drill into me. I pick that over worrying about drilling the hole in the right spot.

Once the holes are made you screw in your screws, all the while hoping that you end up with a securely fastened plate that is holding the bone perfectly back together. Then you close it up and take a radiograph to make sure you screw placement is good. Are any too long? Too short? Do you have to mutter a bunch of curse words and go back in and replace some with different sizes?

Sounds like fun, eh? Yeah, not for me.

The other kind of repair we can do is to place a pin through the centre of the bone, and then put some wires around the spot where it’s broken to offer further support. This, I half don’t mind, actually. . . which is why recently, when my colleague had a cat with a simple spiral fracture in the femur and I said, “That just needs an IM pin and some cerclage wires, we can fix that here.” And she said, “You could do it! Would you do it?” I thought for a moment and shrugged and said, “Sure.”

And so December, 2011, I was lead surgeon on a fracture repair for the first time. We had a lot of fun doing it. The pin placement went really, really well. . . I got it placed, we did a quick close, and took a radiograph to double check the placement before putting the wires in. I don’t mind saying: IT WAS PERFECT. I couldn’t have possibly done it any better. I was super pumped.

Then we went back in to place the cerclage wires. I. Hate. Cerclage. Wires. By the time I had the wires placed, I wanted to stab someone in the eye with the wire cutters. Two became loose before I was done and had to be replaced. I couldn’t get the knots to lay flat. All the positive feelings from how well the IM pinning went disappeared. Poof. I was swearing, cussing, and threatening to poke wire cutters into people’s eyeballs.

There was still some satisfaction when I looked at the post-op radiographs . . . as long as I looked at the view where I couldn’t see the not flat knots. It is nice to know something was broken and not useable, and I made it better. Fingers crossed the cat does well. We’re feeling pretty confident – put 2 cat bones in a room, walk away, and when you come back you’ll have a whole cat! However, I am worried about those wire knots that aren’t flat . . . once her bones are well healed, we can take the wires out if they cause a problem, but that would probably be almost as much fun as putting them in there in the first place.

I guess you could say that under the right circumstances I enjoy fracture repair . . . I enjoy surgery as a general rule, and I like making broken animals better.  For the most part, though, it’s at the very bottom of the list for surgeries I want to do in my week.

So, it’s that time again. That reflective, end of the year time. When I look back at the year that has been. Overall, 2011 has been a pretty good year for me. It’s been jammer packed with new experiences and adventures, and while it wasn’t without its troubles, challenges, and heartbreaks the good definitely outweighed the bad. So much so, that when looking back I almost forgot about some of the trouble spots.

The most noteworthy heart break was work related – the clinic cat where I work became increasingly ill and the decision was finally made this past summer to euthanize her.  I was her doctor, but I was also a staff member who loved her. It was the closest I’ve yet to come to euthanizing my own pet. And I did it surrounded by over a dozen people I work with, who were sobbing. And there were several dozen of people around the province, across the country, who knew the moment we were doing it, were pausing in their day, and feeling a special kind of sadness. Taking responsibility for that final act was humbling, emotionally draining, and thus far the hardest moment of my career.

Like anyone, I’ve experienced an imperfect year. . . but that’s honestly the only really dark moment worth expanding on in this post, so I would definitely count myself as lucky.

There was so much to be thankful for in 2011, and the adventures were many. I would say my three highlights for the year were the KISS concert, my brother’s wedding, and the giant kidney worm surgery.. They will all have their own post in time.

Rocking out at KISS concert. Didn't have any fun at all that night. Nope, none.

I visited new places: Sackville, NB, Bowmanville Zoo, Bonavista.  No very exciting travelling, but I had my favourite traditional jaunts to PEI and Ontario. I got away when I needed to, and that’s what matters to me.

My dad taking a photo of the ridiculous llama at the Bowmanville Zoo.

Some friends moved away, some friendships ended (one on a very, very sour note. . . but as hindsight is 20/20, I’ve come to realize that I’m so much better off), and as always new friendships were made. I’ve even had a good friendship blossom into something even better, and it’s been exactly what I needed in my life right now.

My friends are a bit ridiculous. This is why I love them so.

I learned some important life lessons in 2011: Standing up for yourself can be scary, but is almost always completely worth it. Even if nothing changes, you feel better for having spoken up. Never say never, people will say “I told you so” no matter what, but it’s easier to swallow if you were so adamantly opposed. Finally, don’t date magicians. Just trust me on this one.

Between almost donating a kidney, and having a doctor tell me he thought I might have a brain tumour, I went through a lot of medical testing this year and am happy to report I am ridiculously healthy. Except for an occasionally crippling issue with insomnia.

I tried new things, most notably: hula hooping fitness classes.  Best idea of the year, I’d say. And I became that much more of a grown up when I finally received my full licence. Now no one has to know I never learned to drive until I was 27 years old. (except that I will fully admit it when explaining why driving still freaks me out…) My pets are all doing well, my job is going well, I’m settling into a bit of a routine that works for keeping me a little less crazy. (but still having ridiculous amounts of foolish fun. I’m never really going to grow up entirely.)

I have big plans for 2012, and am hopeful for another mostly positive year. I have my ticket booked to go to Orlando for my 30^th birthday. I have been promised a trip to a conference at some point, we just don’t know which conference yet. I have very solid plans to go to Chicago, and will work every holiday for the whole year if I have to, to get the time off to make it happen.

Oh, and I made a drunken promise to take up Irish Dancing and I totally plan to see that through.

Super pumped for the year ahead! Woooo!

The short version of my excuse for not writing: Work. We’re down two vets, so I’ve been having to put in more hours, been on call more often, and with everything else going on this time of year I’ve barely been home to sleep!

I’ve been doing pretty well, though generally exhausted. Am currently on hour 29 of 48 hours on call, but once that’s done I’m heading back to Ontario for a few days of relaxation at my dad’s. Then I’ll be refreshed and ready to take on the New Year!

It’s been far too long since my last post, so I thought a Christmas post was in order.

As my last post was a bit depressing, how about something more cheerful? How about my first Christmas in Newfoundland? How about all the delicious food? Sounds good to me!

The 2009 holiday season was a great one for food, let me tell you. . .

Early December, some friends of mine had a German roommate, and hosted this German holiday feast. . . there was amazing fruit bread, these delicious baked apples with cream, lots of sausage, and mulled wine. So much deliciousness!

Delicious bready goodness

Baked apple with raisins and nuts and creamy creamy goodness!

Spicey winey warmth!

Every year at work we do a Secret Santa exchange, and people get quite into it. In 2009, though, we had a potluck to exchange the final gifts at. . . this photo really only gives you a small fraction of an idea of how much food was at this event! It was amazing. This is also where I was introduced to my favourite holiday drink: Egg nog, with Bailey’s, stirred with a candy cane! Om nom nom!

There was about 30 people, and they all brought something delicious!

Mint Chocolate Bailey's is especially nice to use!Stir the candy cane, and savour the drink, and the candy cane melts and the drink gets mintier! YUM!

Next up was my very first work Christmas party experience. It is definitely the highlight of my holiday season. . .  and always such a delicious, somewhat fancy, meal! I may have made my date order a different dessert than I, so I could try both. . . and somehow also ended up finishing off a third. . .

Some fancy kind of beef dish. Tasted as good as it looks

Always room for more dessert!

Of course, it’s just not Christmas without Christmas baking! In 2009 I did a big Gingerbread men bake with some friends.  I also made my special candy cane ice cream cake to bring into work.

Fun with gingerbread! Gingerbread zombie, gingerbread santa.. we got it all!

Chocolatey ice cream candy cane infused awesomeness!

Some other food moments: A holiday feast with friends before they headed out of town to go home for the holidays, delicious snacks at a Tibb’s Eve party, and my delicious Christmas Eve feast for my lonely Christmas Eve before I did Christmas Day on call.

Seafood overload with homemade pasta = deliciousness!

Every good party should include a cheese platter.

This was a big deal for me back then. . . my 2010 New Year's resolution was to learn how to cook more than mashed potatoes and frozen foods...

Not included would be all the mountains of chocolates and treats clients brought to the clinic. . .  I must say, the food is definitely one of my most favourite parts of this time of year!

However, there is one ‘excuse’ that always gives me pause: when someone says “I always wanted to be a vet, but I could never bear the thought of euthanasia”.

This thought is one I’m told often. Sometimes people bring in an animal for euthanasia and comment on how they don’t know how I can do it, put animals to sleep. Or a client witnesses sad faces in the waiting room and guesses at what happened and makes a comment to me in their appointment about how they could “never do that”.

I get it. I get why the idea of having the euthanize cats and dogs could be horrifying to people. And certainly, if you don’t think you’d be able to cope with that, do not go into veterinary medicine.

But the truth is . . . euthanasia is WHY I’m a veterinarian.

Now, don’t misunderstand me: I don’t like it. It’s definitely far from my favourite thing about my job, and I will happily go weeks between euthanasia appointments.

I like science. I like medicine. I enjoy blood and guts and gore. I like problem solving. I like a high paced workplace. So why veterinary medicine instead of human medicine? It’s more than just a love for cats and dogs. It’s more than just the added challenge of having patients that can’t speak. I could probably ramble on for pages about why I’d rather be a DVM versus an MD.

Euthanasia is at the top of that list.

Why? Because when my patient is suffering, with no possible end in sight except death, I can quickly and painlessly help them along.

I have known of too many people, who are on the brink of death, that have been kept alive by the miracle of modern medicine but now there is nothing more that can be done but keep them comfortable, who linger on that edge for days. For weeks. Not really living, not quite yet dead, but just waiting. And I know that when it happens to someone close to me, it will kill me inside to watch them fade away slowly and painfully.

I hate euthanizing healthy animals. I hate euthanizing a young healthy dog just because no one wants him. I hate euthanizing an entire litter of kittens because no one wants them. I hate euthanizing an animal with a very fixable problem that the owners just can’t afford to fix.

But for every euthanasia I hate doing, I have at least one I’m thankful for.

The dog with the oral tumour that has gotten so foul his people don’t want him near because of the smell and so large he can barely eat. The cat that is wasting away to nothingness, in kidney failure, who gets all his fluids and nutrients through various tubes. The dog who was hit by a car and sustained injuries so severe it’s only a matter of a few painful hours before he dies on his own. The cat that has an incurable viral disease causing his chest to fill with fluid, who is literally drowning on dry land. The rabbit with a broken face that wouldn’t heal. The rat riddled with tumours.

I could go on.

Yes, euthanasia is hard. No, I don’t like doing it. It breaks my heart to kill a beloved pet while the ones that love it are crying in front of me. But it breaks my heart even more when I have to stand by and watch a creature, any creature, die slowly and painfully, knowing they won’t get any better and they’re just waiting for the end.

I’m a veterinarian because while I will do my best to heal my patients, I want to be able to end their suffering when there’s nothing more I can do.

Bob’s first adventure was Chris Kirby’s tour kick off at the Fat Cat, July 15, 2009. This story is best told with photos. . .

This was a big night, so Bob and I got all dressed up. Don’t we clean up nice?

Quick stop at the ATM to make sure we had funds for drinks. Key to any quality night on George St.

Bob had a great view of the band!

Sippin’ on Gin & Tonic.

Whooops! I think Bob has had enough. . .

Bob has aspirations of fame. . . maybe he could be a musician?

Cuttin’ a rug on the dance floor!

What a lush! Stealin’ the singers hard earned drink!

Hint number the first: It’s not about sex. Seriously.

Hint number the second: It’s about eyes.

Still don’t know? Well, I will tell you! I’m going to write about another surgery I enjoy that involves eyes! This time, it’s not about removing them, but about making them look nicer. By correcting cherry eye. Woot woot!

Not familiar with cherry eye? I’ll try to break it down for you… there’s a gland in the third eyelid, and in some dogs it prolapses. In other words it pops out of the eyelid and sticks out like a sore thumb. So you see this red lump in the inside corner of the eye, that can get all inflamed and irritated and unpleasant looking. Sometimes you can try eye drops and pushing it back in. . . but typically it will just pop back out.

When puppies have cherry eye, we usually recommend correcting it at the time of spay or neuter – they’ll be under general anaesthesia anyway, why not do everything at once?

Now, unlike enucleation, correcting a cherry eye is not a sure thing. I mean, once I’ve removed an eye, that sucker ain’t growing back. Sometimes, though, when you correct a cherry eye, the gland prolapses again. It has maybe about 80% success rate. Which is pretty good, when you think about it. Not much in life is perfect, so I’m pretty pleased with 80%.

Some people actually opt not to repair it, and let the dog live its life with a wonky looking eye. These dogs usually aren’t bothered by the gland, but may be more prone to eye irritation and/or infection. The ones who have a lot of problems with the prolapsed gland generally have owners who opt to remove it rather than deal with a constant problem. Off the top of my head, I can think of two patients I have who have lived years with a cherry eye without major issues. Either the owners are waiting for an opportunity to combine the repair with another surgery, or they adopted the dog that way and since it doesn’t seem to be a problem for the dog they’re leaving well enough alone.

For those who do go for the repair, it is a finicky lil’ surgery. The third eyelid isn’t super huge, and you’re RIGHT beside the eyeball, which you don’t want to injure. So you need good lighting and a steady hand, for sure. An assistant to hold out the eyelid is also helpful. Ideally one who doesn’t get grossed out by eyeball surgery. (I have one assistant who has to look away while she’s holding the eyelid. . . not super effective. . . )

There’s a few different ways surgeons approach the repair. My preferred approach is to make an incision on either side of the prolapsed gland. Then you suture the outside edge of each little incision together. Bingo bango, as you pull the suture material through, and like magic the gland gets sucked up in this new little pocket you’ve made! Which is why I enjoy this surgery. It’s just so neat! I never get tired of seeing the gland just disappear. Zwoop! Gone! Weeheeheehee!

(Yes, I giggle in surgery.  I also dance. You wish you were cool like me.)

Now, if you happen to have a puppy with cherry eye, and you let your veterinarian repair it, they will send you home with an e-collar, or Cone of Shame. This is so the dog won’t rub at the eyes and improve the chance of repair failure. So if you don’t keep that cone on, when the gland pops back out because the dog rubbed his or her eyes to much, it’ll totally be your fault. Just saying.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, and it’s my favourite holiday. Why? Because it’s all about the food. Christmas has great food, but it gets a bit watered down with religion and Santa and all that jazz. But not Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is all about the food. And, well, being thankful. (in Canada, it’s not about the pilgrims or any of that mumbo jumbo. It’s just All. About. The. Food.) I’m pretty thankful for food, I must say.

This love of food, and traditions that are focused on food, ties into a Newfoundland tradition I experienced for the first time back in July of 2009: Jiggs Dinner.

Look at all that food! Smothered in gravy! OM NOM NOM!

I had heard about this Jiggs dinner dealio a few times, and since it clearly was something you eat, I was all about giving it a try.

So, in July, in honour of a friend of ours heading out on tour, the Pants Family had a Jiggs Dinner to send him on his way. It is essentially a turkey dinner, involving salt meat. There’s turkey, potatoes, gravy, and a few other things, but really – potatoes and turkey and gravy is all I need to be happy.

It was delicious. I have had it several times since.

If you come to Newfoundland, you should probably partake in some Jiggs Dinner. There are several places you can go to get one, especially on Sundays. Gimme a shout, I’ll hook you up. I can’t make it – well, I probably could if I put my mind to it, but when I make turkey dinner I make the one of my own childhood – but I have tried it at a few different places.

This, my first Jiggs Dinner, was also a special time because in honour of our friend, who’s Pants Name was “Thunder Pants”, we got a cake. A cake festooned with the Pants Family mascot: Absorbant Robert Quadrilateral Pants.

This cake was purchased at a 24 hour bakery, at about 3am. The cake decorator was a little concerned by the "Thunder Pants" request. . .

The idea was this: Thunder Pants would take one of the plastic figurines with him on tour, and take pictures of Bob having adventures on the road. The rest of us would take one as well, and also take pictures of Bob having adventures. And we’d have a whole bunch of ridiculous pictures of Mr. Pants doing ridiculous things.

Let it be known, I was the only one who really followed through with this. Mr. Pants came to work with me, helped me bake, went out drinking. . . He will maybe one day get his own little post about his little adventures.

Such a cheery little guy! All ready for adventures!

My Bob has lost his nose and his legs, but more than 2 years later he can still be found in my purse at all times. If I change purses, he is one of the key items that gets transferred every time. The Pants Family has scattered to the wind a bit, and I may not see many of the people I shared that first Jiggs Dinner with very much anymore . . . but that little plastic Sponge Bob is with me all the time. He’s a bit of a good luck charm, I suppose. I feel a bit lost without him. I actually was never a big Sponge Bob fan, but that little bit o’ plastic has a tremendous amount of sentimental value for me.

I’m a bit of a sentimental nut, turns out. You can pretend to be surprised.

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE DO NOT EVER USE THIS BLOG AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR CALLING OR SEEING YOUR OWN VETERINARIAN.WE DON’T MIND GETTING A DOZEN CALLS A DAY ABOUT DIRTY EARS. SERIOUSLY.

Today’s question is inspired by a question I was asked by someone who reads this blog (hi, Kate! *waves*)… my dog has a dirty ear, and it bothers him, what should I do?

I get many variations on this question – my dog won’t stop scratching his ear, my dog’s ears are dirty but I don’t think he minds, my groomer says he has an infection, blah blah blah. . .  Ears are one of the most common reasons for a dog to come in for an exam, especially during the summer. Ears are also one of the most common things to be brought up during an annual vaccination appointment. Usually because the owner has noticed scratching, but sometimes because when I look at the ears I see signs of infection.

Dog’s have pretty intricate ears, with lots of nooks and crannies and a significant turn in the canal before you get to the end, where the tympanic membrane is. Some dogs have floppy ears that cover up the inside from the air. Some dogs have lots of hair in the canal. Some dogs like to stick their head in water and therefore get water in their ears.  All of these things combined make for a moist, warm environment where yeast and/or bacteria like to grow. Which makes the ear itchy, so the dog scratches it, and then the ear gets inflamed, which makes it even warmer inside, so the yeast/bacteria grows even more. . . vicious cycle!

Some dogs never have problems with their ears. Some dogs have such severe problems with their ears they end up needing their ear canals removed. And then there’s everything in between.  My dog likes to swim, and has floppy ears, so I clean his ears every so often to prevent an ear infection from setting in. If you think your dog’s ears need cleaning, the important thing to remember is: Do Not Clean With Water (see previous paragraph about moist environment!). Get an ear cleaning that says “Drying” on its label – it will dry out the ear quickly, so you don’t have wet ear canals. Your vet’s office probably sells some good ones. The other thing is not to stick cotton swabs in the ear – you could irritate or damage the canal. I like to soak a cotton ball, stick it in the ear, then massage the ear base to squish the liquid around. Whatever works for you, short of sticking a cotton swab down in there. Some people squirt the liquid right in, and let the dog shake out the dirt, or cover their finger with a tissue to wipe out the crud.

What if you think your dog’s ears are infected? You should see your vet, and get some medicated drops to clear it up as quickly as possible. Chronic inflammation of the ear canal can cause it to narrow and be even more prone to infections that are even more difficult to treat. The other risk of untreated ear infections is if the dog shakes his or her head a lot, they may rupture blood vessels in the ear flap, and then blood fills up the ear and causes it to swell. This is called an aural hematoma, and it’s pretty uncomfortable for the dog and usually requires some surgical intervention. Which, you may imagine, is more expensive than a simple exam and some drops early in the infection!

So, the bottom line? If your dog is scratching at its ears, or shaking its head, or the ears seem red and smelly. . . make an appointment with your vet! Think the ear is just dirty but you’re not sure? See your vet! We don’t mind examining healthy dogs with dirty ears, promise. Fairly positive the ears are just dirty? Get some cleaner and try cleaning it, and if it doesn’t seem to help, SEE YOUR VET!