Thursday, July 28, 2011

Hearing Aids for Dogs: Learn How to Prevent Dog Hearing Loss

Dog ear problems are the main factors why dogs get affected with deafness. It can be frustrating when you symptoms of deafness in your dog. Though, many dogs are affected by inherited deafness, other become deaf due to an accident, old age, overdose of a certain medication, or ear infections.

Hearing aids for dogs functions the same as the human’s hearing aids. If your dog does not listen or respond to you as it used to, it is either your pet is just being stubborn or cannot hear you. A sign of hearing impairment in dogs is that they become irritable or uncomfortable when you touch their ears. Other symptoms are constant head shaking and unresponsive unless touched. These symptoms can be related to any dog ear problems. So, it is important that you determine what the problems in your dog’s ears really are. Dog ear problems such as yeast infection, hematoma, and ear mites can also result to hearing loss.

If you are suspicious that your dog is suffering from a hearing problem, you can try to use a squeaky toy to test. Try to squeeze the toy behind your dog and make unexpected or annoying noise. If your dog is not responsive to it, there’s something wrong with your dog’s hearing.

One of the major questions many dog owners have regarding hearing aids for dogs is whether it fits in their dog’s ears. Generally, dog hearing aids are custom-made by veterinarians. Most of the time, hearing aids can fit in the dog’s ears; however, there are some exceptions for that. Dogs that were born with hearing-impairment associated with a pigment cannot use a hearing aid. This means that those dogs with inborn hearing problems cannot be cured by hearing aids.

Hearing loss in dogs can be painful and distressing. We would not like that to that to happen to our dogs or any dogs. Hence, proper dog ear care is essential in keeping our dogs healthy and happy.