Administering ear drops

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Boomeringue

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2021
Messages
17
Location
UK
My poor boy has been prescribed ear drops as he has symptoms of ear infection, along with the usual antibiotics and steroids. He's quite shy and difficult to handle and I have no idea how I can administer the drops, does anyone have any suggestions how I could do it?
 
I would put him in your lap with his butt against your body (so he can't go backwards) and it gives you more control. Put the drops in his ears with one hand while restraining with the other. Once it's done, let go and if he'll let you, fold his ear and rub it to get the drops down the ear. A treat if he'll take it is also good. Is this for inner ear infection? Is he getting oral antibiotics as well or just the drops?
 
Suspected inner ear infection, and yes he has the right oral antibiotics and steroids. This will be the second time he's been treated for it. After the first time (a couple of months back) he recovered well, but recently his head tilt has got worse and he's been more clumsy and recently seems to be a bit more subdued.

The vet had a look in his ears and wasn't able to see anything (which rules out the middle ear as the problem), and tried to take a swab but didn't have one small enough. Ear drums look fine. Basically it's either an inner ear infection or something more sinister, or perhaps just ongoing after-effects of his first infection. Another course of the oral meds (plus the drops) seemed like the best course.

Thanks for the advice on restraining him. I'll give it a go. It's quite intimidating though trying to keep him restrained when he's dealing with a sensation as strange as ear drops!
 
Well my last attempt had him going absolutely crazy and screaming his head off and I still didn't get anywhere near his ear. All I was achieving was making him scared of me.

Then I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back he'd jumped up onto the table where I'd put the bottle of drops and chewed a hole in it, spilling the contents everywhere. Guess that's that.
 
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