How to Prevent Your Dog's Ears from Getting Cold
To prevent your dog's ears from getting cold, you need to understand why they do in the first place. In short, your dog's ears are exposed to the elements and are full of blood vessels that help heat up their bodies. If you want to know more about how this happens, read on! The Elements Before we go into the blood vessels, let's talk about the elements. When your dog is outside, they're likely being exposed to all sorts of things. These things include rain, snow, wind, sun, and temperature changes. The elements can cause damage to dogs' ears by exposing them to extreme temperatures or causing them to become wet. For instance, rain can leave your dog's ears waterlogged, which will increase their exposure to the cold. In addition, some types of weather can create ice crystals that can enter through their ear canal. This is especially true for dogs with long coats. If you have a husky or golden retriever, you should make sure to keep them away from snow and ice during winter months. Blood Vessels Now that we've talked about the elements, let's discuss how dogs' ears work. For starters, a dog has two sets of ears -- one inside each ear canal. These canals house small hairs called ceruminous glands, which produce an oily substance known as cerumen. Cerumen is what causes your dog's ear wax to stick to their ears. When your dog's ears get cold, the ceruminous glands contract, which causes the wax to harden. As the wax gets harder, it becomes less sticky. However, when it turns into a solid block of wax, it can stop the flow of air to the eardrum. It's not uncommon for your dog to experience pain or discomfort when their ears start to feel cold. If you notice that your dog seems uncomfortable while outside, there are steps you can take to avoid this issue. First, try applying a warm compress to your dog's ears, which can help loosen the hardened wax. Once you've done that, you can use a cotton swab dipped in mineral oil to remove the hardened wax. You can then apply a topical solution to help dry out the ear canal. Finally, you can give your dog a bath to ensure that they don't develop any infections. If you want to learn more about how to treat ear infections in dogs, check out our article here. It goes over everything from how to spot signs of ear infection to how to treat it effectively.