Can cleaning ears reduce the risk of grass seeds?

[Lily Freya]

Must admit that I do comb the ears throroughly after a walk on the tops......they get lots of grass seeds...and so I just do it as routine.

I clean the ears out with a cleaner about every two weeks.

[Helen]

Must admit that I do comb the ears throroughly after a walk on the tops......they get lots of grass seeds...and so I just do it as routine.

I clean the ears out with a cleaner about every two weeks.

I'd say Rachel does as well, as do most of us - it's a good check but doesn't prevent them completely - once a grass seed is way down in the ear which can take minutes it's difficult to detect 

[ClareB]

nope, disagree...and a small amount of ear wax is actually healthy

A couple of years ago Misty had to have a grass seed removed from her ear and the vet found a couple more tiny ones, which he thought had probably been there for some time - he reckoned the wax had stopped them from working their way into her ear drum.

This is exactly what my vet said when Milo got a grass seed in his ear a couple of years ago.  He went to roll in a cowpat and managed to rub a seed into his ear.     The vet said if he didn't have a healthy deposit of wax in his ear, there was every likelihood that it would have perforated his eardrum.

Had a bit of a scare this morning too, Milo came back to us while on a walk, with the tell-tale head shaking and holding his head to one side.  When I looked in his ear, there were a couple of small seeds just outside the ear canal.  I managed to get them out with my finger but only because they'd got "stuck" in a bit of wax.  If his ears were spotlessly clean, I'm sure they would have gone straight down.   

I do clean their ears regularly and they're due a clean about now, but ear wax is there for a reason!

[Lily Freya]

All we can do is try out best to prevent these nasty things......but it is inevitable that they get them merely by the design of their ears..... But, got to admit that I think the ears of a cocker are the thing I love most.....they are just lovely.