Is your dog suffering with constantly recurring ear infections and itchiness and you seem to see your Vet way to often?
Is it a constant cycle of medications and even steroid shots, just for the ear infections and itchiness to come back soon after?
It can be so frustrating but foremost worrisome and we feel bad and often helpless!
A simple, easy and inexpensive natural remedy can do the trick and help your dog to feel a lot better!
What Causes Frequent Ear Infections?
In most cases ear infections in dogs are actually yeast infections, meaning an overgrowth of yeast in the entire body and manifesting in the delicate ear area.
Yeast is a fungus which thrives in an unhealthy, unbalanced acidic PH balance, feeding off sugar and starches, like found in most commercial dog foods with ingredients like sugar of course, but also mostly corn starch, corn meal and corn meal byproduct which turns into sugar during the digestion process.
To take the feeding ground away for the yeast, we want to balance the PH to a more alkaline state for which it is suggested to find a healthy natural food without fillers and starchy ingredients and Apple Cider Vinegar too can help the balance from an acidic to a more alkaline environment in your dog’s body.
For Ear Infections And Maintaining Healthy Ears
Two words of caution:
You want to be certain that your dog’s ear drums are intact as you don’t want to damage the ears and hearing with any fluids when the ear drums are not intact.
Please never use Apple Cider Vinegar pure as it is too concentrated to use without diluting it with water. The dilution 1 part ACV and 1 part warm water is good for most topical applications.
Direct Application Of Apple Cider Vinegar Dilution
Application is easy with a syringe or a little squirt bottle to flush the ear with the ACV/Water Mix, just making sure to not insert the syringe down into the ear canal to avoid injuring the drum. After massaging the side of the ear, your dog will shake the access fluid out and the area and accessible part of the ear should be dried off with a cloth. You want to do this twice daily with an existing ear infection until all cleared up and then a couple of times a week to maintain healthy ears.
Even if your dog only has one infected ear, you always want to treat both.
Internal Application Of Apple Cider Vinegar
As mentioned above, yeast infections only manifest in certain areas of the body like the ears, but actually yeast holds hostage of your dog’s entire body, so an internal approach of taking away the yeast’s “playground” is also something what should be considered.
Here too, Apple Cider Vinegar comes into play and can be used internally with adding it to your dog’s meals.
Start with one teaspoon mixed in wet or dry food twice a day and if necessary it can be increased to one tablespoon (per about 50 lbs of body weight and more or less ACV accordingly) helps creating and maintaining a healthy more alkaline PH balance which yeast doesn’t like at all.
Additional Benefit: Dogs suffering from acid re-flux also benefit from Apple Cider Vinegar added to their food as here too, the acid of the stomach is neutralized.
Are You Wondering What Your Dog’s PH-Balance Is?
You can easily test that with getting little PH test strips at any local pharmacy and hold it in the stream of your dog’s morning urine.
Readings between 6.2 and 6.5 show a healthy PH balance for your pup, readings of 7.5 and up is a bit too alkaline but readings below 6.0 are too acidic and more of concern and more widely spread.
Apple Cider Vinegar- a great boost for your dog’s overall health. Inexpensive and a great addition to any kitchen and home apothecary.
Read about Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar for pets (and humans) HERE
Disclaimer: As usual, of course, this natural remedy is not intended to replace your pet’s Veterinarian and the Author doesn’t claim for this to cure or heal. You always want to consult your Veterinarian to discuss care.
