While walking with my retriever, i met a fellow dog owner who informed me of a free health check the pdsa were doing in our area. So we went along, as Tyler likes to look at the rabbits for some reason. Everything was fine. Although they did inform us about ear cleaning, i thought i was doing ok in my inspection, but the nurse turned the ear almost inside out and there was a little wax which they said you should get drops to wash out. And also with teeth cleaning she said to hold the mouth shut and then brush, as brushing is the best form for anti plaque. I just thought i would share this as i had no idea you could see that deep for wax, or the method for teeth cleaning as Tyler was reluctant to let a tooth brush near his mouth.

I have to start on both of these with my dog- can you get the ear drops from PAH or do you have to get them from the vet do you know?  thanks for the advice,

I got some from pets at home.

To be honest I would not do this (clean regulalrly), and the vet I used to work for always warned aginst it. If you constantly wash the ear to get rid of the wax, the body's natural reaction is to produce MORE wax as the area will be over stimulated. It definitely does happen as well, as if you have a dog or cat that have had a really bad ear infection, mites or similar and have needed regular cleaning of the ears  daily for perhaps 2-3 weeks, then in my experience those ears will produce more wax than normal for the rest of the animal's life.

I'll leave the ears and stick to trying to do his teeth then.  At the moment I am giving him a chicken wing every other day and have the toys that encourage them to sink their teeth in.  Must get around to buying the toothbrush and toothpaste though. thanks.

Thats interesting, thanks you for your input goldimali, i will have to do a little more research into the ear wash. It wasn't something i was looking forward to doing. So what do you do to keep wax a bay?

To be hoenst I've never found wax to be a big problem in any of the breeds I've had, but when it does need cleaning out I find it best to do so with either just kitchen paper (dry) or cotton wool with water -not using any kind of cleaning liquid.

My dog's breeder suggested using baby wet wipes to clean the inside of the outer ear and I've found those effective.

If you are giving raw chicken wings, why not graduate up[ to something bigger that your dog can really work on. Go to chicken legs and then get some marrow bones cut in half maybe. My TT had bad tartar on her back teeth and once I began giving raw bones, only last year, she has no tartar at all. Even the vet. said she had lovely clean teath for an 8 year old. Give it a go it does work and they love having a good old gnaw.