I'm a little worried and wondered if anyone had any opinions on this, or if I'm just being overly protective!

I took my female dog to the vet this morning as she has a very slight ear infection.  It's fairly usual for her, and particularly now as our weather is warming up over here.
I know that if she has a couple of days of drops of either Surolan or Canuaral it will clear and all will be good.

However, my worry is; I took her to a new vet and he used a cotton bud/tip to check her ears as opposed to an opthalmoscope.  He was very gently, granted, but he pushed it in so so far!!!  Tess was fantastic and didn't complain, and thankfully kept very very still.
I wasn't overly impressed with this vets general bedside manner anyway, to be honest.

Anyway, I've just put some more surolan in her ear and when I went to wipe the excess off, she yelped.
I'm just really bothered he might have damaged her ear :(

Well in people the saying is nothing in the ear smaller than the elbow. I wd. be unhappy anout someone putting a cotton bud in my dogs ear.

There's quite a distance down a dogs ear before you reach anything that can be damaged by a cotton bud but it's an unusual choice for him to make if he really needed a view in her ear.

That said I have a dog with recurrent ear problems and I use a cotton bud as his ear canal is now quite narrow.  I can use it to hold against the side to enable me a better view.  I also find it more accurate at catching wax ,dirt and deposits when a larger piece of cotton wool is more likely to push them further in. 

I'm very careful and very sure that I'm doing no harm but if my lad has an ear infection he is sore and likely to wince or yelp (sometimes even before I touch his ears!) - perhaps that's the case with your girl too.  Hope she gets better soon, ears are a pain in more ways than one aren't they?!

They are indeed dogs a babe!  :)

Thanks both for your replies, it has set my mind at ease a little.
Even with my own ears, I know that it can be so dangerous to use a cotton bud, so I do like the reference to nothing smaller than your elbow :)

I've put some more surolan in Tess' ear this evening and been able to very gently massage the canal without any little noises from her.  Poor mite.
I'm pretty sure all will be ok in a couple of days, she's a very quick healer for an oldie :)