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Bailey - The Dog with a feather in his ear...
by Liz Watkins BVSc MRCVS

Bailey came to us because he had an irritation in his ear. He was quite distressed with it – shaking his head as if it was very itchy.

Itchy ears, correctly called otitis externa, can have a number of causes. It used to be called ‘canker’ but this term covers a multitude of possible causes. Most commonly it’s due to an infection with bacteria or yeasts. Sometimes, particularly if both ears are affected, allergy is the underlying cause. Often these allergic dogs have skin irritation elsewhere. Sometimes there are ear mites causing the itch. These are fascinating creatures (if you like creepy crawlies!) – tiny white mites which we can see crawling about when we look down the ear. They live happily in the warm, moist ear canal, and feed on the debris there.

In Bailey’s case, when we looked down the ear, all that could be seen was a small pale stalk-like structure near the eardrum.

Bailey was sedated to get a better look. It’s quite common in the summer to get grass seeds down inside the ear. But when we explored the area under sedation, we pulled out a tiny feather!

Bailey’s owner then told us he’d been playing around a feather pillow earlier. How one ended up in his ear is anyone’s guess. At least the source of irritation could be easily cured.

Clients often ask us for eardrops for pets with otitis. We will always ask to see the pet before prescribing anything – as there are many causes of this symptom, an accurate diagnosis is needed to prescribe the correct treatment. In Bailey’s case, prescribing any drops would simply have prolonged the discomfort.

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