 Hi, my name is Kristina and I'm one of the technicians at Claude's and Paws Veterinary Hospital, and this is Carl, and today we're going to demonstrate for you the proper way to clean your dog's ears. There are many reasons why we might need to clean our dog's ears, anything from regular maintenance to cleaning because they have an ear infection or maybe they've just had a bath or been in the pool. But before we begin, any ear cleaning regimen on your dog, you'll want to check with your veterinarian to make sure that there's not an active infection and also to get a recommendation on what the best type of ear cleanser would be and also how often to clean your dog's ears. In general, we don't want to clean dog's ears any more often than about once a week and less distracted to do so by your veterinarian. Let's discuss the internal structures of your dog's ears before you begin cleaning so that you understand how to best clean your dog's ears. First, inside the dog's head, there are two parts to the ear canal, the horizontal canal and the vertical canal. The vertical canal is what you can see. The horizontal, you cannot see without the assistance of a specialized otoscope to be able to see around the corner. At the end of the horizontal ear canal is the tempanic membrane and behind that lies the ear drum. When we clean our dog's ears, we want to be very careful to do so in a very gentle fashion so that we don't rupture or cause damage to that delicate tempanic membrane. Additionally, because of the shape of the ear canal, we don't want to pack wax down around that bend into the horizontal canal. We want to gently flush that debris up into the vertical canal so that we can gently remove the debris. Now Carl and I are going to demonstrate how to properly clean your dog's ears. First you want to lift the ear pin or ear flap and insert the cleanser gently into the ear canal. Very gentle pressure on the bottle to allow the fluid to fill up the ear canal. When you see the ear cleanser fill to the top of the canal. You're going to begin a squishing motion at the base of the ear and this is going to loosen up any debris or wax that has accumulated down in that ear canal. It will also loosen up any debris in the horizontal canal and allow it to come up to the top of the ear where we can gently remove it. Once you've massaged at the base of the ear and loosened up that wax, we're going to lift the ear pinna and using a cotton ball, we're going to gently stick it down into the ear canal and twist and pull up and we should get a little bit of waxy debris out. You're going to repeat this process several times until no further debris is present. Sometimes it's necessary to use the ear cleanser multiple times on the same ear to get all of the debris out of the ear. Next, we'll use our cotton tip applicators to remove any debris from the inside of the ear pinna. We don't ever want to use these down on the inside of the ear canal. Only on these outer crinkles and folds of the ear, sometimes debris will get collected in these little crinkles and this is the best way to remove them. But remember, we don't ever want to stick a cotton tip applicator down into the ear canal. We can pack that loose debris around the bend into the horizontal canal and up against that tempanic membrane. After we finish cleaning our dogs ears, oftentimes they'll shake their head to get rid of any further debris or if there's any residual ear cleaner left in their ears. So, you'll want to make sure that you do this process in some places easily cleanable such as a bathroom or maybe even the backyard. For more information on ear cleaning or other health topics related to dogs and cats, please visit our website at www.cpvh.com or you can now download our mobile app by searching Clause and Pause Veterinary Hospital. It's available on the Android Market or the iTunes Store. Or if you'd like to speak with us in person about a question you have about your pet or to schedule an appointment, you can call one of our friendly receptionists at 281-997-1426. Thanks.