dirty ears

[Rachael]

How would you clean inside a rats ear if it is dirty? Just wax, not infected. No head tilt, but head shaking?

 

[smilez_n_hugs]

What do you mean by head shaking?

 

[Rachael]

Not really head shaking, flap their head as if they were shaking water off.... hard to explain?

 

[Rattus]

Does your rat act like his/her ears are bothering them? Grabbing them etc and such? ... maybe they need a cleaning.. just a cloth, i dont think you can put anything in there to clean it, i wouldnt risk it. I wonder if there is something going on in the ears where you should take them to the vet?

 

[xxchelle]

Don't stick anything into the ear, like a q-tip or anything, rats' ears are very delicate.

 

[LA]

I would say go to the vet, it could be something worse.

 

Rats clean thier own ears, I would take a trip to the vet!

 

[Rachael]

I wouldn't put something inside their ears. The vet has seen her, but not her ears, you can see the wax, she isn't cleaning herself properly as she normally would. What would a vet do...drops?

 

[Rissa]

I think I get what you mean. When nortons HED got bad enough he stopped cleaning his ears and he got build up of wax on his ear flaps. I pulled some of the cotton off a q-tip to make it smaller and just gently cleaned around his ears to get it off. You could dip the cotton swab in a little bit of oil to make cleaning easier. Norton sometimes LOVED me cleaning his ears and other times not so much.

 

[LA]

I see what you mean about the wax now.

 

If I were you I would call the vet and ask before putting anything in the ear. As someone said before, rats ears are very sesnsitive.

 

[mamarat]

I don't want to gross anyone out but when Sven (3 legged rat) need his ear cleaned I just used my nail very gently to remove the wax. Whenever he wanted it done he would rub my hand with his face. It was so cute.

 

[xxchelle]

That's what I do for the little tripod Clodhopper

 

[Rachael]

That's what I was considering haha.... but her ears are so tiny, wouldn't that be sore? :/

 

[MomRat]

I would go with food grade mineral oil or unscented baby oil. It's about as safe as you can get, to loosen it up and wipe it off with some tissue or cotton. Then there's no risk of fingernail damage. You can find food grade mineral oil wherever you find bamboo kitchen utensils, usually cutting boards - you oil the wood to keep it from drying out and cracking, so the oil has to be safe to get on your food. =)

 

[Rachael]

Thanks!

 

[Amyu]

My rat has a cut on her ear and it is dirty and it folded wierd how it is healing what would be best to get her ear clean and unfolded