Ear pain on an older dog (1 Viewer)

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Hi all,

Quick question for the dog folks.

Background: 9 year old female lab/dane mix that has been very healthy. She is mostly a back yard dog, but sleeps inside. A year or so back, I was rubbing her ears (the way she normally likes) and she yelped in pain. I took a look and her ear seemed normal with no foreign objects, no sores, no weird smells, etc--just a bit of ear wax. I figured that she might have hurt it playing with the other dogs and didn't think much of it. Her pain resolved over the next week, but every couple months, that same ear will get tender again.

Current issue: Roughly two weeks ago, I noticed her holding her head a little funny, and then gingerly shaking it when normally she shakes it pretty violently when needed. I confirmed that her pain is back, and that her ear still looks and smells fine. Her sensitivity is most pronounced when pressing on the cartilage toward the top of the ear. I was thinking about cleaning her ears with some type of ear cleaning solution, but was curious if anyone here had good experience with cleaning dog ears.

I know that the standard answer is to take her to the vet, but I'd rather not if this is something that is relatively common.

Thanks in advance for any ideas!

Pics of Gabby for attention!
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We always clean our dog's ears after they go swimming, or at least once a month with a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol. My better half, a former vet tech, says take her to the vet. There may be something else going on there. Gabby looks like a great girl!
 
We always clean our dog's ears after they go swimming, or at least once a month with a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol. My better half, a former vet tech, says take her to the vet. There may be something else going on there. Gabby looks like a great girl!
Thanks! That does remind me that she'll tend to react to water in that ear when swimming and try to shake her head while still swimming 😅😅 When she gets out of the water she also will often spend a few minutes rubbing her ear on the grass.
 

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