How to put ear drops in a wiggly dog?

[Alocin86]

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Hi

I have a pug cross who has been prescribed ear drops and an ear cleanser for an infection. He's also on oral antibiotics for infected Anal Glands.
The oral medication isn't an issue, but he will not let us get near his ears with the drops or cleanser. The poor guy will fight for his life when we try.

He has no issue with me playing with his ears, looking in them, etc, but the second I have something in my hand he goes bananas and wriggles none stop. I just cant get close enough to do it. He wouldn't let the vet look in his ears either so she prescribed some drops as part of an elimination process.

My husband tried to pin him but because his neck is fatter than his head he was able to pull his head in just far enough his chunky neck closes off his ears. And He gets really distressed if we persist.

We've tried bribing/distracting with food and cuddles, he's having none of it. He's always been like this since we got him, he hates being fussed with unless it's on his terms.

Does anyone have any advice for this?

Thanks

 

[JoanneF]

Not very much I'm afraid, only that if it doesn't affect how effective the drops are, sometimes making them body temperature feels less uncomfortable. You can carry the bottle in a pocket or tucked into clothing to bring them up to body temperature.

Sorry, that doesn't help with actually giving them.

 

[JudyN]

This is a bit late for this ear infection, but after bening in the same situation with my dog, I did manage to teach him to accept ear drops. I can't remember the process exactly, but it went something like this:

1. Show him an ear drop bottle in my hand, give him a treat. Repeat, repeat, repeat till he gets excited at seeing the bottle.
2. Extend your hand (without bottle) towards his ear, and treat, Repeat, repeat, repeat.
3. Extend both hands towards the ear (as you'll need 2 hands to get the drops in). Treat and repeat...
4. Extend both hands, with the bottle in one. Treat and repeat...
5. As above, but touching the ear flap.
6. As above, but lifting the ear flap.
7. When he's happy with this, mimic putting drops in.
8. Put some body-temperature olive oil in the bottle and repeat step 7 (to get him used to any change in smell).
9. As above, but this time deposit a tiny bit of olive oil onto his ear.
10. Gradually mould this till you can actually get a few drops of olive oil into the ear. Then, fingers crossed, it will work with 'real' ear drops.

With my dog, this worked quite quickly, but he was already happy with ear rubs, so you might need to spend a lot of time simply getting yours to see hands near/touching/handling his ears as a good thing. The trick is never to progress too quickly - you want him to see each step as something exciting and to be welcomed because it means he gets wonderful treats. You want to avoid signs that he knows that you're 'up to something'.

On a good point, my dog's infection cleared up despite not being able to get much of the ear drops in.