Songsong shakes his head often

xueshuxin · Post by **xueshuxin** » Sun May 21, 2006 2:54 am

Does this mean he has something wrong with his ear? What are the usual signs of an ear illness? If so I'll take thim to the vet.

Brisco · Post by **Brisco** » Sun May 21, 2006 4:22 am

It could be many things. Do you ever clean his ears? to much wax and/or dirty. Water in the ear from a bath or after swimming which will fix itself in a day or two usually with a lot of shaking. Maybe the dreaded grass seed which if you suspect I would certainly get into the vet, they are horrible things and the longer you wait the worse they are.
I've have learned from two trips to the vet over this in the past three years not to worry and keep a good eye on them for a couple of days. I'm no vet and I'm not trying to give medical advise but mine both go through head shaking stages fairly often, a few times a year each maybe. The second time I took Brisco in, the vet told me that he didn't know what it was but it could be a couple of longish hairs down in the ear that were tickling him??? The other time the gave him a powdery spray to help dry it up. If it's a grass seed it would probably be sensitive if your rub it or gently massage around the base of the ear, which I think all dogs love anyway.
If in doubt, check it out. Hope he fixes himself soon.

chowfrnd88 · Post by **chowfrnd88** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:19 am

Matthew gave really good advice.

We just went through an ear infection with Special Dark also.Special started shaking his head quite a bit one day and then the next day he was holding one ear lower than the other so that's when I called the vet and it turned out to be an ever so minor ear infection. They said that they hardly saw any yeast or bacteria, but we got some drops to put in his ear. It cleared up within a few days. The vet told us it could have been an irritated bug bite, a hair that fell in, an itch that he had that he transffered bacteria to his ear, etc. but he wasn't sure about the cause. I hope Songsong fels better very soon.

TigerTiger · Post by **TigerTiger** » Sun May 21, 2006 7:32 am

I hope Songsong is feeling better now.

The one way I learned from my vet and my own experience to identify the ear infection is to smell it. Just simply open it up -- as our chowdren will "CLOSE" their ear when they find out what we are planning to do.

Then just put your nose right "inside" of the ear and smell it. It takes some practise and learn from your experience to correctly identify the problem.

And last year, during our visit to my grandparents in China (Guangdong) and I found out that you can purchase ear cleaning drops in the local pet store, which is the same that we could find here in North America. So you can also try those as most of the time, it's just because the ear needs to be cleaned.

But as Matthew mentioned, remember to clean the ear on a regular basis and make sure no water is getting in when you give Songsong a bath/shower.

Jeff&Peks · Post by **Jeff&Peks** » Sun May 21, 2006 9:16 am

I have only had the head shaking experience once but I knew something was wrong, whining with extreme head shaking, Pekoe had 2 foxtails why down in her ear canal. I would take him to the vet just to be sure, have the vet check it out. It could be water, a bug but excessive shaking the head is a sign something is wrong. The vet also has a solution that you just pour in the ear it cleans the ear and your Chow just shakes it out. Cleaning the ear like the others said is probably better but I don't trust my self trying to clean Pekoe's ears.

Judy Fox · Post by **Judy Fox** » Sun May 21, 2006 12:30 pm

Could be an infection. Milly is having ear-drops from the vet at the moment as she has an infection in one of her ears. Almost cleared up now - just a check up tomorrow.
So, I agree with the others - better be safe than sorry - get the problem checked with the vet.

Tovya · Post by **Tovya** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:20 am

My Chubaka goes through bouts of head shaking. His vet told me that most likely Chuy has allergies and this is one of the symptoms. He also had scratched the inside of his ear once and this turned into quite a messy situation with icky black goop caked in there, which I assumed was blood from him bothering it. I usually examine his ears whenever I groom him but, I have to do it mostly on the sly because he closes his ears if he notices me taking too much of an interest. They're tricky.

Tovya

Post by **Auddymay** » Mon May 22, 2006 12:32 pm

I haven't had any ear issues, but I do massage Lily's ear, rubbing just inside at the top, kinda kneading the ear...she loves it, and I think if I had to look in her ear, she would be fine.

kiwani · Post by **kiwani** » Tue May 23, 2006 4:13 am

You've mentioned buying questionable worming meds online and dosing him on your own for some time. This could have changed his body pH and opened the door to secondary problems.