The smell. The itching. The sadness in those big puppy dog eyes as your pooch suffers through yet another painful ear infection.
You’ve probably heard a dozen different explanations for your dog’s chronic ear infections. His ears are floppy. She swims too much. Your groomer isn’t drying them properly. You need to clean them more!
The truth is none of these things are responsible for your dog’s problem. The real cause is not on the outside, it’s on the inside.
In this article, we’ll look at the causes of ear infections and how those causes become chronic due to underlying issues that exist in your dog’s gut. And we’ll tell you what you can do to break the cycle of chronic ear infections to get your pooch some much-needed relief.
What Causes Dog Ear Infections?
When it comes to the cause of ear infections in dogs, there are two different aspects to consider. The first is the specifics of the infection itself. In other words, what is making your dog sick?
Yeast
The most common cause of ear infections in dogs is yeast overgrowth.
Yeast, which are single-celled fungi, live all over your dog’s body, inside and out. Normally, these fungi are harmless. But when conditions in the body are thrown out of whack, yeast tend to multiply faster than they should.
Dog ears, which are naturally dark and damp, are the perfect place for yeast overgrowth to occur. Dogs with floppy ears are the most likely to get yeast ear infections, but only if an underlying issue causes the yeast overgrowth in the first place.
Ear infections caused by yeast often originate in the middle or outer ear and spread quickly to the ear flap. These infections are easy to identify by the reddish-brown discharge and the telltale sour smell.
Bacteria
Bacteria are the most common cause of ear infections in humans. These same pathogens can also cause problems for your dog.
Typically, bacterial ear infections start in the inner or middle ear. These types of infections often cause dogs to shake their heads, scratch excessively at the ear, and carry their head awkwardly. You may also see yellow or green discharge or notice a foul odor coming from the ear.
If left too long without treatment, bacterial infections can spread to the outer ear. When this happens, you may notice swelling and redness of the ear flap.
Bacterial ear infections are often treated with antibiotics. While this is necessary to knock out severe infections, it also sets your dog up for repeat infections in the future. We’ll look at why this is in the next section.
Mites
Ear mites feed on the wax deep in your dog’s ears. While these parasites don’t actually bite or hurt your dog, they can cause itching and irritation. If your dog scratches too much, they can injure their ear, which can cause a secondary bacterial ear infection.
Mite infections are easy to identify by the coffee-ground-like residue visible in the outer ear.
If you suspect your dog has ear mites, it is imperative that you begin treatment right away, before your dog’s scratching causes additional issues. Olive oil, garlic oil, and green tea can all be used to safely and naturally treat ear mite infections. Click here to find out more.
Foreign Object
Like ear mites, foreign objects lodged in the ear don’t cause ear infections by themselves. But they can create the right environment for yeast or bacteria to thrive, thus leading to a true ear infection.
Grass seeds and other debris from playing outside can easily get lodged in the ear canal. If your dog is shaking their head and scratching at their ear but there is no visible sign of swelling or irritation, a newly embedded object is likely to blame. If the foreign body has been there for some time, you might see pus or swelling in the ear canal.
In either case, get your dog to the vet right away to have them examined.
What Causes Chronic Ear Infections?
For most dogs, ear infections don’t just happen once, but recur repeatedly. If your dog suffers chronic ear infections, treating the surface cause—bacteria or yeast—is just as important as treating the root cause.
There are three chief causes of chronic ear infections in dogs.
Allergies
Like humans, dogs can be allergic to environmental substances like pollen and grass, as well as certain foods. Both types of allergies can cause chronic ear infections. This is because allergies exhaust the immune system, which allows yeast overgrowth to occur all over the body.
Food allergies are especially likely if your dog suffers frequent ear infections. The combination of an exhausted immune system and chronic inflammation in the gut brought on by food allergy exposure allows yeast numbers to grow unchecked. This overgrowth starts in the gut but continues throughout the body.
The gut houses 70% of the body’s immune system. Constant exposure to food allergens causes inflammation that restricts how this system operates while also killing off the beneficial bacteria the body relies on.
Problems In the Gut
Allergies aren’t the only thing that can cause problems in the gut.
Leaky gut is a common problem with dogs that have undiagnosed food allergies and those that have frequent exposure to antibiotics. In dogs with this condition, gaps in the gut lining allow large food particles to pass into the bloodstream. This causes a number of problems throughout the body, including chronic inflammation and chronic infections.
Dry kibble diets and low-quality fresh and canned food can also cause problems in the gut. These foods often include too many starches, which can lead to an imbalance of good bacteria and yeast in the intestines. Chemical preservatives, dyes, and pesticides found in many dry foods also have a negative impact on gut health and the immune system.
In dogs eating poor-quality diets, the number of good bacteria in the gut is much lower than in dogs that eat raw or fresh high-animal-protein diets. Good bacteria not only help fight pathogens that the dog consumes, but they also work to help strengthen your dog’s entire immune system.
Chronic ear infections are the first sign that your dog might have a bacterial imbalance or chronic inflammation in the gut.
Medications
There are a number of medications that cause immune system imbalances. Many of these are well known, such as steroids and cancer treatments. But when it comes to dogs with chronic ear infections, it is often the medication used to treat those infections that causes the problem.
Antibiotics don’t just kill the bad bacteria causing the ear infection, they also wipe out much of the good bacteria in the gut. This imbalance not only weakens the immune system but allows yeast overgrowth. This yeast quickly takes root in the still healing flesh of the ear to cause a repeat ear infection.
Often, owners treat these repeat infections with more antibiotics, which do nothing to kill off the yeast overgrowth. But these extra meds do continue to harm the health of the gut and the immune system, increasing the likelihood of subsequent bacterial infections.
How to Stop Your Dog’s Chronic Ear Infections
One solution many owners seek out to help with their dog’s chronic ear infections is to take them to the groomers to have their ears cleaned. Unfortunately, a clean ear doesn’t do anything to help prevent ear infections. And, in fact, overcleaning the ears is more likely to provide the sterile environment yeast thrive in.
Rather than relying on your groomer to take care of your dog’s ears from the outside, it is better to spend your energy taking care of them from the inside.
You can do this in three easy ways.
Remove Allergens
Before you can relieve your dog of chronic ear infections, you need to ensure that the food they are eating is doing no harm to their gut. The best way to do this is with an elimination diet.
In an elimination diet, you reduce the number of different food ingredients your dog consumes to help determine which ingredients they are allergic to. Once you understand what they can eat, then you can build a new diet for them based on these non-reactive ingredients.
Performing an elimination diet is not easy or quick. But it is the best way to determine what might be causing your dog’s problems. To learn more about this process, check out this article on elimination diets and food allergies.
Improve Their Diet
Even if your dog isn’t allergic to any ingredients in their food, their diet may still be the cause of their ear infections.
As we discussed above, poor-quality dog foods, especially dry kibble varieties, are brimming with ingredients that negatively affect gut health. The best diet for your dog is going to be the one that most resembles the diet canines evolved to eat.
Their bodies have been primed for hundreds of thousands of years to get all the nutrition they need from meat, bones, and fat. Unlike humans, they do not need carbohydrates to survive. In fact, sugars and starches cause more problems in the canine body than they prevent.
Unfortunately, most dog foods out there include some amount of starch—most include more starch than protein.
When choosing your dog’s new diet, look for a fresh, dehydrated, or raw diet that is high in quality animal protein and doesn’t include any dyes, fillers, or artificial preservatives.
Also, pay attention to how much of the diet is made up of carbohydrates like rice, potatoes, and grains. This amount should be much less than the amount of muscle and organ meat included in the recipe.
Support Optimal Gut Health
Reducing allergen exposure and feeding a quality diet are the two most important things you can do to help support your dog’s gut health. But they aren’t the only steps you can take.
When possible, avoid giving your dog antibiotics. Treat ear infections early with natural methods to stop the infection before it grows to the point of needing medication. If your dog does need antibiotics for a bad infection or surgery, support their gut by supplementing with a dog-specific probiotic during and after the treatment.
Other medications that affect the immune system and gut health should also be avoided as much as possible. These include:
- Dewormers
- Antidiarrheal medications
- Medicated flea and tick treatments
- Heartworm preventatives
- Unnecessary vaccinations and vaccinations given too frequently
Stress can also cause imbalances in the gut that affect the immune system. Make sure your dog is getting plenty of exercise and is not being overfed, as weight gain puts extra stress on the body. And do what you can to minimize anxiety-inducing situations.
Once your dog’s gut and immune system are brought back to health, you should see the frequency of their ear infections drop off. Keep them at bay by continuing to feed a quality diet, keeping your eye out for signs of new allergies, and by using gut-supporting supplements when needed.
The Cause of Chronic Ear Infections Is Inside Your Pet
Chronic ear infections are not caused by bad grooming, water in the ears, or poor hygiene. They are caused by bacteria and yeast taking advantage of an imbalanced system. When your dog’s gut and immune health are out of whack, their ears will be the first to tell you.
To help your pooch put chronic ear infections in the past, be sure to feed them a quality, allergen-free diet, and to support optimal gut health by avoiding unnecessary medications and supplementing with probiotics when necessary.
By Carrie Hyde, The Spaw Pet Life Coach | September 4, 2021
Written for The Spaw by Sara Seitz, Professional Freelance Writer and Novelist with Pen and Post
Carrie Hyde is the founder, owner, and Pet Life Coach of The Spaw in Tustin, CA. Carrie’s extensive experience and understanding of pet nutrition and coaching enabled her to create The Spawdcast, a podcast dedicated to educating pet parents and pet industry professionals on ALL the options available to their pet. Her mission is to open pet-owner’s eyes to the questions they may not even know to ask, to shine light on the many myths that have been part of pet care for decades and to offer whole solutions for their pets. Carrie Hyde is a certified pet nutritionists with the goal of helping pet parents & pet professionals with a new understanding about how to care for pets in a “whole and natural” way.
