Examine your pet's ear canals. Lift up the ears and look inside. If the skin in the canal has a tint of red, or if you smell a cheesy or stinky odor, or if you see any kind of discharge, the ear(s) is/are likely to be infected.

Veterinarians typically respond to ear infections by prescribing drops or ointments to fight the infection. This is typically very expensive and produce poor results. Many people have entertained much better results using an inexpensive homemade ear treatment and cleaning solution with much better results.

If your veterinarian's treatment plan hasn't been working for your pet, try using the cleaning and treatment solution sold on this website. Experience has shown that a dog with an ear infection, if given this treatment daily, will show improvement within a few days, and will have the problem solved completely within about two weeks. After that, you only need to use this treatment solution every week or two.

It is safe as long as the ear drum is intact and there are no open sores, scratches, punctures, or wounds in the dog's ear. For example, if your dog has scratched his ears with his claws and broken the skin, it would not be a good idea to use the ear cleaning solution until that wound has fully healed. Why? It is because the alcohol would sting and the boric acid would have a pathway to the bloodstream.

Also, please be careful not to accidentally get any of the ear cleaning solution in to your dog's eyes. If your dog's ear drum has ruptured or been punctured, the ear cleaning solution would be very bad for your dog. Therefore, the safest thing to do would be to have your vet do an examination of your dog's ears first before starting treatment with this ear cleaner.

Boric acid is used in some roach killing products. Can't it poison my dog?

The response here is similar to the last answer. As long as there are no sores, wounds, etc. in the ear, the boric acid will not get in to the dog's blood stream. True, you don't want your dog licking or drinking the treatment solution, but it's safe to use in the ear. When your dog shakes his head and the ear cleaning solution goes flying everywhere, you might want to use a towel to wipe off any of the solution that lands on his coat.

The products all say "not for internal use" yet you are asking me to insert these in my dogs ear!
Are you nuts?

It's like the difference between putting soap in your mouth and in your belly button. As long as the ear drum is intact, the ear canal is a sealed cavity. The ear cleaning and treatment solution goes in, it gets swished around, and then the dog shakes his head and all the ear cleaning solution comes out. It is not ingested, inhaled or injected into the body.

Should I use a cotton ball, Q-Tip, Kleenex, etc. to clean out my dog's ear?

The answer is "yes" if you find a lot of "gunk" inside the ear. Feel free to use something to help clean all that gunk out of the ear canal. After you have done this for several days in a row, you will have removed all the gunk out of ear canal and the flushing action of the ear cleaning and treatment solution will do the rest.

My Veterinarian has recommended a total ablation of the ear. Will the ear cleaning and treatment solution help? (Abalation: The removal of diseased or unwanted tissue from the body by surgical or other means.)

If your dog has had a severe ear infection for so long that the ear has calcified and sealed itself closed, you've probably waited too long to start using the ear cleaning solution. If the ear canal has sealed itself closed, the ear cleaning solution won't be able to get inside to work. However, there's no harm in trying. You can try using the ear cleaning solution and using cotton balls and Q-Tips to clear out some of the major crud inside the ear. Over time, you might be able to clean things out to the point that the ear canal opens up. It's worth a try. There is not much to putting the surgery off for a month to see if daily cleaning with this ear cleaning and treatment solution can accomplish the task. It is know to have worked for others.

Is this only for dogs that have a full-blown ear infection in progress, or can I use it on a healthy dog to prevent him from ever getting an ear infection?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! Use it once every one or two weeks to prevent your dog from getting an ear infection. On dogs that are currently experiencing an ear infection, use it daily.

I've been using the ear cleaning and treatment solution for several weeks, but my dog continues to have an ear infection. Now what?

While the ear cleaning solution will successfully eliminate ear infections in many dogs, there is the occasional serious infection that requires professional veterinary treatment. One exception, and I quote: "We've used this ear cleaning solution on all of our dogs for the last several years, and it has worked great except for in one really bad infection that ended up requiring antibiotics to beat. After the vet put that one dog on antibiotics, the ear cleaning solution has kept infections from ever coming back in that dog."

Can I use this on other breeds of dogs besides Cocker Spaniels? How about on a cat?

Of course. No problem.