My B has really dirty ears

[Vanessa]

Our little pup has this brown build up in his ears. I clean them once a week and they are filthy. Could this be earmites?? Is it common for B's to get such dirty ears? Our B doesn't roll around in the dirt.
Thanks,
Vanessa

[lvoss]

It is not common for basenjis to have dirty ears. You can take him to the vet and they can swab his ears and look at gunk under a microscope to see what it is. It could be mites, bacteria, or yeast.

[JazzysMom]

Hard to say:

Ear mites usually have the dog shaking or scratching his ears, crusty discharge, etc.
I've been told that a yeast infection will produce black build-up in the ears.

What do you clean them with?

I clean Jazzy's ears with an ear cleaner from Bio-groom. I wipe them out with a cosmetic pad dampened with the cleaner. You can also get pre-moistened pads. {I also use their protein lanolin shampoo}
I don't clean them terribly often, but then she generally has pretty clean ears {which is surprising given the amount of time she spends outside.}

[Vanessa]

I went to the pet store today and purchased the 8 in 1 pet ear cleaner. Today I spent over 20 minutes inspecting and cleaning his ears out. I will be keeping an eye on the build up and next week when I take him in to the vet for another puppy booster shot I will have him check it out. I even took the time to clean his little teeth..(my poor hands) little sharp puppy teeth + my fingers in his mouth = my hands looking like they lost a battle ;)
I ended up getting the teeth cleaning pads. Using a toothbrush in his little sensitive mouth right now isn't a good idea :)

[RockysWoman]

Our B gets the brown gook too… but I don't believe in the amounts your (Vanessa626) dog does. We've found that taking a kleenex wrapped around a couple of fingers and swabbing the ears immediately after a bath takes care of the issue. You want some wax in there (a little is healthy, a lot is a health issue) but this routine cleaning seems to work for ours.

Best of luck!

[Vanessa]

I found that the wax is from the fact that he has such big ears that they catch all the dirt from outside ;)
I've gotten in the habbit of cleaning his ears every couple of days. It has helped out a ton.

[tanza]

I have found that puppies do develop dirty ears for some reason…. seems to me once they are past the teething stage, it all stops... for the most part

[RockysWoman]

@tanza:

I have found that puppies do develop dirty ears for some reason…. seems to me once they are past the teething stage, it all stops... for the most part

Same thing happens with human kids too…

[tanza]

Would not have know that since I don't have "human" kids… ggg