Can I Use Coconut Oil for My Dog’s Ear Infection?
We humans love coconut oil. We swear by its moisturizing and healing properties; we use it for our hair, our skin, and even in our diets.
But what about our furry friends? Can they make use of coconut oil too?
Thankfully, coconut oil also has a lot of benefits for your dog! The fatty, natural remedy can be added as an excellent supplement to your dog’s life and diet in very similar ways to which we add it to ours.
And one thing people usually like to boast about in terms of coconut oil is how amazing it is for dogs’ ears, especially when they're infected.
What are all the good ways you can make your pooch’s life better through coconut oil? Let’s find out!
Benefits of Coconut Oil for Dogs
With vets becoming more expensive each year, it’s a good idea to add a healthy supplement to your dog’s diet and grooming routine to avoid potential infections and also keep your dog healthy.
Coconut oil does wonders with its antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. It is an excellent natural substitute that could easily beat its chemical counterparts, and could also benefit your four-legged friend in many ways.
Coconut oil for dogs:
- Improves digestion
- Increases nutrient absorption and metabolic functions
- Improves breath smell
- Controls inflammatory bowel syndrome
- Improves ability to control diabetes
- Reduces arthritic problems
- Moisturizes dry skin and improves eczema
- Improves coat and makes it shinier
- Helps with itchiness from allergies
- Treats and prevents yeast and fungal infections
Coconut Oil for Cleaning and Controlling Dogs’ Ear Infections
Coconut oil is a lesser-known secret weapon when it comes to dog ear infections and also keeping your dog’s ears clean in general. It serves as both a treatment and preventative measure! Which is amazing news when you remember how susceptible dogs are to bacterial, yeast, and ear mite infections.
Besides being antifungal, antiviral, and antibacterial, coconut oil also has the power to strengthen the immune system so it can better fight the infection. Not only will it clear up the infection, but it will also soothe any itchiness or external discomfort in the ears that could be bothering your dog. If it’s a mite infection, it will remove the grime that ear mites feed on, as well as smother those bothersome mites.
This oil is an elixir, but what makes it even greater is that it can be used as an everyday grooming product for your pooch, cleaning wax and keeping their ears clean and healthy.
How to Use Coconut Oil to Clean Dogs’ Ears
Using a medicine dropper or syringe, apply a few drops of warm (not hot, not cold!) coconut oil into your dog’s ear canals. Distribute the oil by gently massaging the bottom of their ear.
You can let the oil sit in your dog’s ears for a bit so it can clear up the infection and clean the ear. Unless you notice something wrong, like a sudden redness, you don’t have to rinse it off – but you can use a warm and damp soft cloth or towel to wipe down the outer part of the ear.
Do this every two to three hours during the day until the infection has cleared up, and generally, you can do this twice to three times a week to keep the ears clean!
Conclusion
The best thing about coconut oil as a remedy for your dog’s ear infection is that it’s natural and an incredible chemical-free substitute.
As usual, though, always get your vet’s blessing first, just to make sure how much you should be using and to ensure your dog isn’t allergic to coconut oil. Ear infections hurt our little pups’ bodies as much as they can hurt us, so it’s important to not underestimate how much a visit to the vet will speed up the healing process before trying out home remedies first.