04/08/2026
A lovely post by our colleague Dr Painter. A normal dog does not need its ears cleaned. If your dog frequently has ‘dirty’, smelly, or heavily waxy ears, something more is likely going on.
👀 Did you know that the ear canal has a built-in self-cleaning system called epithelial migration?
Skin cells move outward from the eardrum toward the ear opening — carrying debris, cerumen (ear wax), and dead cells with them. The ear was designed to do this on its own.
Cerumen isn't the enemy either. It's a normal secretion with antimicrobial properties. It lubricates the canal. It's part of a healthy ear environment.
So where does cleaning come in? And, why are we cleaning dog's ears all the time? Should we be? What's the "right" thing to do? 🫧
Well, let me start by saying that inflammation changes everything.
When the ear is inflamed — from allergies, from moisture, from anything that disrupts that environment — cerumen production increases. Epithelial migration slows or stops. The canal can't keep up with itself anymore. That's when debris accumulates, when the environment shifts, when secondary infections take hold.
Cleaning becomes necessary not because ears are dirty — but because the underlying inflammation has broken the system that normally keeps them clean.
This is how I think about cleaning cadence. More inflammation = more intervention needed. A well-controlled atopic dog may barely need maintenance. An uncontrolled one might need weekly support just to stay ahead of it.
If you're cleaning every week just because someone told you to — it's worth asking why the ear needs that much help in the first place.
And, you can overdo it — daily cleaning can cause more inflammatory problems because of tissue maceration, moisture, or topical reactions.
Go back to basics. Clean the ear less, manage inflammation more.
👇 Share this one.
