Waxy ears

[DaveyCavy]

Hello all! My three-year-old sow Mabel, whom I adopted a little under a year ago, has extremely waxy ears. I try to gently clean the build-up with my fingers or a sterile Q-tip whenever I can. My vet also prescribed some anti-fungal ear drops which are meant to be administered twice daily. The problem is that Mabel absolutely hates it when I go anywhere near her ears, particularly with the drops: she wiggles, squirms, and bites, despite being a very tame and gentle pig otherwise. Just now I tried to give her the drops in one very waxy ear, and it almost looked like she had a small stroke: one side of her face started briefly twitching. It only lasted a few seconds, and I've been cuddling and petting her and feeding her treats for the past half-hour... Her heart-rate has gone down and she's chowing down on wheatgrass as we speak, but I'm still quite worried. Do any of you have experience with ear care, or a pig who strongly resists medication? Thank you so much!

 

[sport_billy]

Sounds like she is getting incredibly stressed

am tagging in @Wiebke @furryfriends (TEAS) @Siikibam @PigglePuggle @Piggies&buns regarding the ear issues

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

Do the ears cause a problem, if you leave them? I've never cleaned guinea pig ears and it does sound like the process of cleaning them, is causing a lot of distress.

 

[Wiebke]

Some teddies can be more prone to waxy ears as a breed in my own experience. My Nerys had one waxy ear (the other was never that badly affected) which she absolutely hated to have touched and she would wiggle and twitch so much that treatment was near impossible and I eventually gave up because it was too much of a struggle.

However, she never suffered any visible side effects like a head tilt, ear infection or parasitic problems etc. in her over 8 years of life despite the wax build up. My Nye (my current teddy who also suffers from 'teddy skin') has a waxy ear which does seem to bother him much but which he is most uncooperative to have looked at or treated.

 

[DaveyCavy]

Thank you all so much for your help, and I apologize for the late reply! This forum is such a wonderful place, and I appreciate all your insights and advice.