My dog has a broken Q-tip in its ear. Can I remove it safely?

NEVER use something that small in a dog's ear. You should use a cotton ball and only wipe what you can see. Try blowing gently in and on that ear to get her to shake it out. If she doesn't shake it out then I recommend getting her in to your vet tomorrow so they can look in her ear to find it and remove it.

Do not try to get anything out of her ear at home. You can push it farther in and possibly puncture her eardrum. Your veterinarian can look into her ear with an otoscope, see exactly what it is, and determine the best way to get it out.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm sorry to hear that Cookie yelped and vomited following her ear cleaning. The inside of dogs' ears is very sensitive, and we NEVER recommend cleaning their ears with Q-tips, for risk of causing damage to the ear drum (tympanic membrane). As long as she is acting normally at home (no head tilt, not ear scratching or head shaking, eating/drinking/urinating and defecating normally), she will likely be OK! From now on, please only ever clean her ears gently with a dry cotton ball, and only clean the visible, external portion of the ear canal. I hope this is helpful!

The only way to know if there is a piece of cotton still in the ear canal is to have your vet look inside with an otoscope. If there is a piece in there it can cause constant infections and a decrease in hearing. I know you flushed out the ear afterwards but cotton gets heavy when soaked and may not come out. The ear canal in a dog is very long so it could still be down there.

I am so sorry to hear about Scarlett! If you cannot see the cotton swab then it sounds like you will need to visit the veterinarian to retrieve the swab. We sometimes need to use an otoscope and hemostats to carefully retrieve objects such as this, and occasionally if the dog is not cooperative or the object is lodged deep within the canal we may need to give the dog a sedative to be able to remove the swab without causing futher damage to the ear canal and ear drum. If Scarlett is in pain or unable to relax tonight with the swab then a visit to the emergency vet may be needed to prevent her from causing damage to herself. Best of luck to you and to Scarlett!

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I would recommend having Dexter examined by a veterinarian to get a good ear exam in order to determine if anything is stuck in the ear canal or if there is an infection that needs to be treated. I would not advise trying to stick anything into the ear at home or trying to remove anything yourself as you could potentially damage the ear drum. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

If the shaft is made of paper, this is unlikely to be a problem if Griffin just ate one swab. The stomach should be able to break this down. If the shaft is plastic, then it may cause an issue. However, seeing that Griffin is 90 pounds, I suspect he might pass this. If you want to be safe, then have a vet examine him and they may give him medication to cause him to vomit to try to rid him of the qtip before it passes out of the stomach.