Otodectosis (ear scabies in dogs and cats), ear mites, identification and control methods. Otodectosis or ear mites in dogs: treatment at home and ways to protect small pets Parasites on dog ears

Dogs are susceptible to various ailments. If you notice that your pet often shakes his head, his ears droop unnaturally, or his dog has lost his appetite, there is a possibility that the animal is bothered by ear mites. Ideally, you should immediately contact a veterinarian; if this is not possible, use useful tips and treat your pet yourself.

The canine ear beetle feeds on lymph; in order to obtain food, the pest is able to gnaw through many passages on the inside of the ear. In these openings, the tick lays eggs, which go through several stages of development, then turn into adults. The entire process lasts no more than thirty days.

It is always easier to prevent an ear mite infection than to later treat the disease in your beloved dog. Useful tips:

The sooner you start treatment, the more positive the prognosis. Due to constant itching, the dog scratches its ears, and an infection may develop, which aggravates the treatment. Therefore, carefully monitor the animal, and if there are any changes, take care of the problem.

Video. Read more about the symptoms and treatment of ear mites in dogs:

The mite Otodectes cynotis lives in the external auditory canal of many carnivores (dogs, cats, ferrets, arctic foxes). It feeds on blood, lymph, earwax and skin particles, constantly releasing, of course, its waste products.

Ear mites affect animals of various ages, but young animals from 1.5 to 6 months suffer more.

How does infection occur, how is ear mite transmitted?

Ear mites are transmitted when a healthy dog ​​comes into contact with an infected one. Cases of infection through individual items (shoes, etc.) are recorded, but more often this is true for small dogs and animals with weakened immune systems. In young puppies, the source of infection is often the mother.

Symptoms

Ear mites cause an invasive disease in dogs, which, as a rule, is chronic. In the habitats of ear mites, the following occur:

• redness,
• swelling,
• during inflammation, a characteristic liquid is released, which, together with dead skin particles, earwax and mite waste products, forms black-brown crusts in the dog’s ear,
• when complicated by secondary microflora, the process moves to secondary and internal care and then to the meninges (this happens rarely).

• constant itching: the dog tries to scratch its ears on objects or intensively scratches them with its paw claws (often until it bleeds),
• the dog’s head position becomes unnatural: the head is lowered or tilted towards the affected ear,
• in advanced forms of the disease, pus forms in the auricle, which glues the hair on the lower edge of the ear,
• if inflammation spreads to the meninges, nervous disorders develop, during which the dog dies.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis is made on the basis of signs characteristic of the presence of ear mites, as well as mandatory scraping. To do this, use an ear stick to collect dirt from the inside of the ear and apply it to a glass slide. Press down on top with a cover glass and look under a microscope. If the dog really has ear mites, then it will be clearly visible, it will look like in the photo.

Once it is confirmed that the dog has ear mites, appropriate treatment is prescribed.

Treatment

Treatment with special preparations is carried out only after preliminary thorough cleaning of the auricle from all contaminants. Now there is a large selection of different tick remedies, which differ in the active substance, manufacturer and, of course, price. It will not be possible to remove ear mites immediately, so it is important to be patient and observe the specified interval between the use of various medications.

There are no folk remedies for the treatment of otodectosis in dogs. By using various decoctions and infusions, you will only cause your dog unnecessary suffering and delay treatment, which will really help get rid of the tick.

Veterinary remedies for ear mites

How to clean a dog's ear?

Many dogs are not very fond of ear cleaning, so your pet will have to be restrained. Small breeds can be wrapped in a towel or blanket with only the head sticking out. To restrain a large dog, you will most likely need a second person to hold the dog's body. The person who will directly clean the ears should sit on a comfortable chair and try to fix his head between his legs. If the dog is likely to bite, it makes sense to tie a tight bandage over the muzzle. It is also important to provide good lighting for more thorough and effective cleaning.

It should be noted that some pets, on the contrary, begin to worry more if they begin to be restrained and some kind of pressure is applied. Therefore, for starters, you can try to clean your ears without any coercive methods. If there is severe itching while cleaning the ears, the dog may reflexively make characteristic movements with its hind limbs.

• What to clean with? You can clean your dog's ears with regular ear sticks or with a cotton pad wrapped around your index finger. Using medical instruments (for example, using a clamp to comfortably hold a cotton swab) requires some experience.
• How to start? With your left hand, holding it, straighten the dog’s ear. With the right hand, they begin to clean out dirt from all the anatomical recesses in the ear, gradually going deeper towards the ear canal. The movements should be from top to bottom so that the dirt is lifted outward and not pushed even deeper. Don’t be afraid to insert the ear stick too deep; a dog’s ear is designed differently than a human’s and you won’t damage the eardrum.
• To cleanse the ear of dry debris A cotton swab can be moistened in a solution of hydrogen peroxide or Chlorhexidine bigluconate 0.05%. It is also permissible to use these drugs if the dog has abrasions in the ear from scratching with its claws.
• Use of lotions. There are many special lotions for hygienic cleaning of pet ears. Such lotions have a softening effect: they reduce itching and redness in the ears. Of course, their correct use will greatly facilitate the cleaning process, but they are more expensive than conventional products (peroxide and chlorhexidine). A few drops of lotion are placed inside the dog's ear and massaged into the auricle for a minute. The components of lotions soften all accumulated impurities, and they fall away almost by themselves. The dog is allowed to shake its head, after which the remaining lotion and dirt are carefully removed with a cotton pad.

Ear hygienic cleaning products

Lotion Bars for cleaning ears, Russia. Price 110 rubles	Lotion 8 in 1 EXCEL, USA The cost is about 270 rubles.	Otifry, Poland Price 480 rubles.
Price 900 rubles.	Hydrogen peroxide solution Price from 10 rubles	Chlorhexidine bigluconate solution 0.05% Price 20 rubles

How to apply ear drops or ointment?

In long-haired dog breeds, it makes sense to cut the hair from the inner surface of the ear during treatment, otherwise the medications will not penetrate into the deeper sections and the meaning of treatment disappears.

The dog's auricle is straightened towards the back of the head (as if turned inside out). The nozzle from a tube of ointment or from a bottle of drops is immersed as deeply as possible, but so that you can see how much of the drug you will inject. After which the ear is returned to its natural position and massaged for a minute to distribute the medicine evenly.

Some drugs can cause discomfort (burning) to the dog, this is especially true if there are wounds in the ear. Therefore, it is necessary to be patient with the dog and at the end of all procedures, reward the pet with a treat or distract it with a toy.

Cases no self-recovery was observed when infected with ear mites, so you can’t count on everything going away on its own. Delayed treatment or non-compliance with doctor’s recommendations leads to the development of complications and the chronic phase.

What's happening

Ear mites, using the powerful jaws of the chelicerae, destroy the surface of the epidermis and feed on secreted tissue fluid and lymph.

Otodectosis is divided into three stages:

• weak - itching, redness of the skin of the ear canal lasts 4–5 days, crusts occupy a quarter of the ear area;
• medium - brown crusts spread over half of the auricle, exudate with an unpleasant odor is released from the ear, local body temperature rises;
• strong - the dog is in a depressed state, severe scratching of the muzzle and submandibular area is observed, purulent discharge appears, and difficulty chewing food.

Launched the disease leads to otitis media, inflammation and perforation of the eardrum, hearing loss. In severe cases, surgery is required. Hematomas and wounds in the area of ​​the ears are not uncommon. In a chronic process, inflammation of the external auditory canal flows into the tissues of the middle and inner ear, and from there to the meninges. As a result, the dog may die from meningitis.

Ear mites in dogs

How to make a diagnosis

If the dog shakes its head or rubs against a surface, scratches its ears with its claws, which means you need to be prepared for an unpleasant diagnosis. Otodectosis should not be confused with ordinary ear inflammation, in which the ear discharge is not so large.

The basis for determining the disease are:

How Find out on your own at home if your dog is sick, if it is not possible to see a doctor? To do this, secretions are collected from the ears and placed on a white sheet of paper. With otodectosis, dark inclusions are visible. These are waste products of ticks. If there is no inflammation and elevated body temperature, you can start treatment yourself.

Treatment and prevention

First of all, a dog infected with a tick must be isolated from other animals during treatment until complete recovery. It is important to clean the ear very well and the ear canal, otherwise the mites will survive and the treatment will not produce results. Using a cotton swab soaked in chlorhesidine, thoroughly rinse both ears.

How to treat at home

Anti-tick medications are used in strict accordance with the instructions. Treatment at home includes:

Drugs for treatment

Means for treating ticks Available in the form of aerosols, ear drops, ointments. Veterinary pharmacies and pet stores have a wide range of insectoacaricidal drugs that quickly relieve the symptoms of the disease.

Treatment of a complicated form is carried out with antimicrobial drugs of systemic properties. Such medications are administered to a sick dog subcutaneously or intramuscularly. However these agents are highly toxic Therefore, treatment should only be carried out under the supervision of a veterinarian. After the symptoms disappear, the ears are treated with acaricidal preparations for prevention.

When working with acicides comply with personal protective equipment- the dog is treated in a ventilated room, making sure that the medicine does not get on the mucous membranes of the animal and humans.

Prevention

The dog should not have contact with sick animals. It is necessary to ensure (especially in the summer at the dacha) that she is free-ranged as little as possible.

Before treatment, to prevent re-infection, all animals must be treated with acaricides- preparations to combat ticks in the form of powders and sprays for topical use. In pet stores you can buy shampoos with insectoacaricidal properties.

Disinsection (destruction of ticks) must be carried out in all places where the sick dog was.

Infection with ear mites (i.e. otodectosis) is naively considered by some owners to be a “trifling” disease that does not pose a danger to the dog. But that's not true. The pathology may well lead to complete hearing loss or sepsis. Therefore, for treatment and prevention, ear mite drops for dogs are definitely needed.

Finally, let’s define what is dangerous for dogs:

• The risk of otitis media increases almost 100%.
• Possible.
• The danger increases sharply.
• Sick animals experience a significant decrease in immunity.

How to properly bury a dog's ears

Now we’ll tell you how to properly bury your dog’s ears. In order for the drug to be as effective as possible, the ears must first be cleaned using cotton swabs or disks moistened with sterile vegetable oil or 3% hydrogen peroxide.

Having instilled the medicine, you need to fold the auricle in two and massage its base: this way the medicine will be better distributed throughout all the “nooks and crannies” and will no longer flow out of the ears.

List of drugs: their advantages and disadvantages

So, on the pages of this article we will describe the main means used in the treatment and prevention of otodectosis in dogs. Of course, it is unrealistic to present the entire list of drugs within the framework of the material (there are a lot of them), but we will describe the main and most effective remedies.

Surolan

The drug has not only an acaricidal effect. It suppresses the activity of microbial microflora, accelerates the healing of mite-affected tissues, and also prevents the development of allergic reactions. The medicine is specialized, used only for the treatment of otodectosis. The composition contains miconazole and prednisolone (the latter has a powerful anti-inflammatory effect).

For two weeks, five drops are dripped into each ear of a sick pet once daily.

The use of the product is strictly prohibited if the dog has a damaged eardrum (or there is a suspicion of it).

There are no other contraindications; drops can be used to treat even pregnant and lactating bitches.

Read also: Emicidin for cats: instructions for use

Oritsin

As in the previous case, the drug not only destroys mites, but also suppresses inflammation, constricts blood vessels (which also helps against inflammation and allergic reactions), suppresses the development of fungal microflora, and also has a local anesthetic effect. Ivermectin is the main “impact agent”; tetracaine is used as an auxiliary anesthetic substance.

A weekly treatment period is indicated. The medicine is dripped twice a day, every day. Any damage to the dog's eardrum is also a complete contraindication to the use of the medicine. In addition, other acaricidal drugs, especially those based on ivermectin and its analogs, cannot be used simultaneously with Oritsin. This is done to avoid damage to the liver and kidneys.

Stronghold

These are also drops, but not ear drops (for application to the withers). The drug is very “versatile”: with its help you can treat not only otodectosis, but also protect the animal from other ticks, other bloodsuckers, as well as worms. The advantage of the medicine is that it can be used to cope with almost any case of ear mite infestation. The main component is selamectin.

Let us emphasize once again - the drops can only be used externally; instilling it into the ears is strictly prohibited! It can only be applied to the base of the skull, between the shoulder blades, and along the vertebrae. Can be used once. You can re-treat your pet, but only after a month.

Contraindications

In the case of “Stronghold”, contraindications need to be listed separately:

• Treatment of pets under six months of age is prohibited.
• Do not treat weakened pets or sick ones.
• Medicine and moist skin are incompatible!

Selamectin is quite toxic, and therefore it is strongly recommended not to eat, drink, smoke, etc. during treatment. In addition, it is forbidden to allow the dog near children for two hours after treatment.

"Leopard"

Helps destroy ticks, and also relieves inflammation and suppresses the development of secondary pathogenic microflora. Diazinon is used as the active ingredient. The treatment is two-fold: on the first day, three drops of the product are instilled into each ear once. A week later, the procedure is repeated, the dose is the same, but the treatment is carried out twice a day. If necessary, a second course of treatment can be carried out after another two weeks.

The medicine should not be used to treat dogs with mechanical damage to the ear canal (components of the medicine may enter the bloodstream).

Otoferonol Gold

A specific drug used only for the treatment of otodectosis. It has a powerful acaricidal, anti-inflammatory and antibacterial effect. The composition includes an alcoholic infusion of propolis, the main active ingredient is deltamethrin, as well as cycloferon.

Read also: Tetracycline ointment for cats in the treatment of eye diseases

The course of treatment is five drops in each ear, once a day with an interval of one week. If necessary, the therapeutic course can be repeated.

Amitrazine

These drops are used as an aid in the treatment of otodectosis. They have an anti-inflammatory effect, soften the skin and accelerate regeneration processes, suppress the development of putrefactive and fungal microflora in the lumen of the ear canals.

Contains: amitraz and dimexide. Apply six times, every other day. Five drops are placed in each ear. Strongly not recommended for use during pregnancy.

Aurikan

One of the best drugs. These drops have a combined effect, allowing you to simultaneously destroy mites and suppress inflammatory and allergic reactions. In addition, the product is characterized by a weaker antifungal effect. The drug is specific, intended specifically for the treatment of otodectosis. Contains lindane and prednisolone.

For small dogs, five drops are instilled into each ear, for representatives of medium breeds - 15 drops, for large animals - 30 drops. In the first week of treatment, the medicine is used daily, once a day. The next month - once a day, twice a week. It is strictly forbidden to treat dogs with these drops if their eardrum is damaged.

Amit Forte

Contraindications

• Treatment of pregnant and lactating bitches is strictly prohibited.
• Puppies younger than one month old should not be treated.
• They should not be used on pets who are sick or recovering from infections.

As with Stronghold, you should not drink, smoke, or eat while using the drug. During the day after treatment, the dog should not be allowed to come into contact with small children.

Even experienced breeders often have no idea what ear mites look like on dogs. In general, there is nothing strange about this: the pathogen, that is, Otodectes cynotis, is not impressive in size. It can only be seen through a microscope.

One of the interesting features of this type of tick is the almost complete absence of sexual dimorphism: the body length of both females and males is approximately 0.45-0.5 mm. This makes them very different from other types of ticks, in which the female is usually much larger than the male (especially after a heavy meal).

A whole series of unpleasant complications:

• The most typical problem is. Moreover, in many cases it has a dangerous habit of quickly deteriorating, turning, for example, into. In a particularly “successful” set of circumstances, the dog may well die from the perforation (more precisely, melting) of the eardrum and pus entering directly into the brain. In addition, dogs who have recovered from the disease often experience impaired coordination of movements. This is due to possible damage to the cochlea and other organs responsible for maintaining the normal position of the body in space.

• Full or partial animal. Considering that ear mites in most cases affect both ears, deafness may well be not only complete, but also bilateral.

• Inflammation of the external and all other parts of the hearing organs.

Likewise, the risk of developing tumor pathologies (both benign and malignant) increases significantly.

Read also: Vermidin for dogs: characteristics of the drug and methods of use

Risk group: which dogs are most susceptible to otodectosis

Frankly, dogs become infected with ear mites much less often than cats. But there is a certain risk group in the case of these pets:

• Long-haired breeds.
• Dogs with long ears are very susceptible to tick infestation.
• In addition, animals with soft and folded skin (Shar Peis, for example) are in a similar situation.

In general, everything is simple here. All signs of ear mites in dogs are similar to those of any other hearing diseases:

• The dog starts. At first it is not severe, but over time the itching becomes more and more severe. After a couple of weeks (depending on immunity and other factors), he “gets” the animal so much that the dog begins to literally tear its ears. It is not surprising that sick pets' ears quickly become covered with numerous scratches, tears and abrasions.

• Development of the inflammatory process, in many cases quickly turning into a purulent form.

• Copious accumulations of brownish-red deposits. These are waste products of ticks. Accordingly, the more of this “sedimentary rock” there is, the more intense the infection.

Read also: Why does a dog bite and chew its paws?

• In severe, advanced cases, the ear creates an ideal environment for development of pathogenic and, including pyogenic, microflora. In addition, in some situations, putrefactive microflora joins the inflammatory process. In these cases, the dog begins to smell extremely unpleasant. In addition, with advanced otodectosis, the dog constantly shakes its head and ears, causing droplets of foul-smelling exudate to fly in all directions.

Treatment methods for otodectosis in clinical and home settings

First, we note that methods of treating dogs for ear mites can be divided into two large groups: “home” and clinical. I would like to say that starting to treat your pet using the “recipes” you read on the first forum you come across is not a good idea. If you do not know the basic therapeutic principles, then you can quickly harm the dog rather than contribute to a real improvement in its condition.

Drug treatment

As a rule, drug treatment for ear mites does not cause any particular difficulties. Provided, of course, that the case is not too advanced.

There are plenty of drugs for this:

• The most common “Bars” drops, which are available in every veterinary pharmacy.
• Otovedin.
• Tsipam.
• Aurican and other drip preparations intended for application directly into the ear canals.

Folk remedies

Let us immediately emphasize that folk remedies can be used in the treatment of otodectosis only if the course of the disease is mild. When pus drips from your pet's ears, applying poultices is just a waste of time.

Experts advise using the following methods:

• Camphor oil has proven itself to be quite effective, and can be used to clean dog ears up to three times a day. Ticks do not like camphor very much, so in the early stages of infection it is quite possible to cure an animal.

• We highly recommend disinfecting the ears of a sick pet at least twice a day, using a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution for this purpose. Peroxide practically does not harm the mites themselves, but this simple remedy prevents the development of inflammatory processes.

• A real folk remedy is strong green tea (cooled, of course, to room temperature). They need to clean the dog's ears up to five times a day. Green tea is a natural disinfectant. It has a slight tanning effect and also prevents the development of inflammatory reactions in the animal’s ear canals.

• To treat otodectosis, it is recommended to use garlic, but we would not recommend using this remedy. The fact is that garlic contains many substances that are deadly to dogs. In addition, such a “vigorous” remedy can simply burn the delicate skin lining the inside of the ear canal. But if there are no other options, then you can use it. It is necessary to grind the smallest clove of garlic into a fine and completely homogeneous paste. It is mixed with about a stack of sterile vegetable oil, and then infused for 24 hours. The resulting composition is instilled into the dog’s ears no more than one drop per day.

• You can also use essential oils, including peppermint, eucalyptus, and orange.