Keeping your Springer Spaniel ears healthy

Springer Spaniel ears are prone to problems, so it is essential that you take good care of them which, in turn, will help to ensure that you keep your Springer Spaniel healthy and happy.

Make sure you check her ears every few days. Lift her ears up and have a look inside. If they look mucky and brown and/or have a musty smell to them, then its time to be cleaning them out.

This picture shows what an infected Springer Spaniel ear looks like, as you can see there is a significant amount of brown wax in there. In my opinion, the ideal time to clean your Spaniel's ears is just before you go out for a walk. This is because all of the head shaking will be done out of your home!!

You can obtain cleaning fluid/oils to clean your Spaniel's ears from your Vet. A top tip is to ensure that you have a stock of this at home, so make sure that when you visit the vet, you have stocked up on the ear cleaning solutions they provide. Alternatively I have heard that using Olive Oil can also help to keep your spaniel's ears clean.

How to clean Springer Spaniel Ears

Just before your walk, get everyone ready before you go outside with your spaniel. Once you are out of the house, administer the treatment in one ear. Hold the base of the ear canal between your thumb and forefinger and massage the fluid in.

Then holding the ear next to her head, turn her head over in order to administer the cleaning fluid to the other ear and repeat the process.

Then get a ball of cotton wool and clean out the gunk that you have dislodged with this process. Don't be scared to get right into the ear to clean it out, their ears are pretty robust and actually your Spaniel will quite like it!!

Your Springer Spaniel will now embark on an ear shaking spree, spraying whats left of the treatment everywhere. Don't worry your Spaniel is fine, just wondering what the hell that was in her ears. This is the reason though, that I suggest you do the treatment outside. On looking inside the ear now, you should see ears like those in the picture above. As you can see its a nice pale pink with no brown muck, unlike the picture of the infected ear at the top of the page

Ear cleaning complete, you can now take her out on a long walk where she will shake lots more. When you get back home give her a bath, hints on how to make life easier during bath time can be found on my bathing page. Alternatively you can also have a look at some of my grooming pages. If the smell does not disappear once you have cleaned her ears, repeat the procedure. Finally, if it does not go away you should seek medical advice.

You also need to ensure that your Springer Spaniels ear hair is clipped to ensure that she can clean her ears out through a good shake when she needs to.

Make your own Springer Spaniel ear cleaning solution

To mix your own springer spaniel ear cleaning solution, mix in a cup with one tablespoon of water one tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide and add three tablespoons of dish detergent.

Soak a cotton swab in this mixture and clean your springer spaniels ears thoroughly once a week. Works like a charm.