Positive PetzineHow To Administer Ear Medication for Your Dog - Painlessly
Has your dog ever had an ear infection? Likely your vet will have prescribed ear medications for treatment or prevention of future ear infections.
The problem with ear medications is that they can be quite uncomfortable for your dog, the medication often needs to be administered in liquid form directly into the ear canal.
Your dog may find this uncomfortable and start avoiding you, or even becoming aggressive towards you.
If your dog becomes aggressive, consult with your vet and seek help from a competent behavioral trainer knowledgeable in desensitization and counter-conditioning. Avoid anyone who suggests punishing your dog for this behavior.
If the problem is only mild, then you can begin this simple and effective desensitization procedure yourself.
Have some small, yummy treats ready. Do this exercise before a meal, not after. The exercise involves forming a positive association with the ear medication and having the ear touched by pairing with yummy treats (for more information, Google "Pavlov").
The first step is to have your dog used to having his ears handled - without medication. Touch the outside of his ear and give a treat, do this a few times. Then touch the inside of the ear and give a treat. Don't stick your finger into the ear canal, just touch the actual ear and give a treat. Do this a few times, as many times a day as you can. Gently massage your dogs ears if he likes it, tell him how good he is!
When your dog seems to enjoy having his ears touched, show him the medicine bottle and give a treat. You can do this a number of times.
Next, leave the lid on the medicine bottle and touch the inside of his ear with it, then give a treat. This step is probably the most critical, particularly if your dog has already had ear medication and doesn't like it.
Now we get to the point where we need to administer some medication. I would suggest you administer just a small amount unless your vet insists upon a full dosage all in one go. Feed treats while you administer the medication, and after. Now tell your dog how proud you are while you gently massage the outside of his ears (if he enjoys having his ears massaged, of course, we are building positive associations!)
Remember to keep it positive, don't move ahead too fast, and give plenty of treats and praise as you go!
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Comments
liquid oral medication
Hi.
My 6 mo-old pup (Bouvier) gets 2 ml of a tincture every day, for at least half the year, possibly for the rest of his life. Tinctures come in alcohol, which in my experience, dogs hate the smell/taste of. (I don't blame them.)
I have given all sorts of eye drops, pills, capsules, liquid oral meds, etc., to dogs in the past,with very little problem, but have never had such a hard time as giving this tincture. I know how to do it in terms of squirting into the pocket of the lower gum, the problem is the minute he sees or smells it, he runs, and I literally have to corner and pin him to give it to him. He just hates the smell and taste, and there is no way to hide the smell of alcohol.
He is fine with me touching his mouth and handling him otherwise. (Not 100% yet with trimming mats between toes and nail clipping, but we're getting there using the training levels.) We do a full-body tick check every night, including his lips, and I can stick my fingers in his mouth, so I question whether desensitization will help. (Happy to be told I'm wrong, tho!)
As soon as the med's over, he gets a treat, which he looks for, and he has no fear of me approaching or doing anything to him, his lips, face, etc., except if that syringe is in my hand. I keep hoping he will eventually realize it's gonna happen whether he struggles or not, so he might as well just give in, but so far, not yet.
re: liquid oral medication
Systematic desensitisation would work but that's not what you're doing because you have to come in with the real deal too soon. If you had some time on your side you could build up to it, I have no doubt at all. You would start with something yummy in the syringe but the syringe already predicts something yucky now.
I don't think dogs have any particular natural aversion to alcohol but they can only safely metabolise very small amounts. There are lots of stories of dogs drinking beer and eating fermented fruit, so I don't think we should start with the premise that they hate alcohol. In any case, if this is a natural aversion or a conditioned aversion, either way we need to deal with it.
You are administering 2ml of tincture, which is a tiny amount so we don't need to add too much of anything to reduce the % of alcohol dramatically which will hide it to some extent. I would suggest gravy or something like that. Or you could hydrate some kibble and mix it all together in a meal. I would be surprised if your dog just didn't lick it up straight away but I could stand to be corrected :-)
One of my dogs needs to have cortisone drops every day to stave off blindness and painful inflammation. I didn't have time to teach this properly so I just hold her head between my knees and gently put the drops in without any fuss. We do this in a small room so she has nowhere to hide or escape. If I had given her any hope whatsoever that anything in her behavioural repertoire would help her to avoid the drops it would have been a disaster, so from day one I set it up so that she could not avoid this treatment. Firm, maybe harsh, but necessary. Sometimes life is tough! She still squeals with pain (they sting badly, there is no avoiding this), but she does not try to get away or avoid me.
You're (mostly) right! It worked!
I know about dogs eating fermented fruit and drinking beer, which have high sugar content. IME of my 4 dogs, they all dislike the smell of hard liquor -- pure alcohol, like in tinctures, in vanilla extract, or in vodka (which I use for cleaning). Usually the higher proof, the more they hate it. Barnum is not terribly naturally food motivated. I have had to work to make food more exciting (via clicker) and he never liked kibble. He eats a raw meat diet now, partly because he was so picky.
However, I tried, last night, putting a few drops into some cooked hamburger (because I didn't think raw would absorb it very well), and he went through a pretty funny approach/avoidance quandary: "It SMELLS like yuckiness, but it's in a BOWL which means yumminenss, and not in the syringe..." I just held it out and let him decide. He decided it was worth tasting, and then worth licking up. I put the rest in another small amount of cooked meat, and down the hatch! YAY!
I think if we do this as a daily routine, when he is hungry, in something that he finds sufficiently appealing, we will have put an end to the dreaded tincture battle. I might start giving him yogurt or milk from a syringe (because he LOVES dairy), just to undo the conditioned aversive, for the inevitable day I'll need to squirt something else into his mouth.
THank you so much!! So happy to be wrong about this!