Signs of Hearing Loss in Dogs
📝 Summary
Dog deafness usually comes from ear infection; catch it early before lasting damage. Causes are structural, neurologic, or tumors; bilateral loss shows as no response to name or sound. Diagnose by culture or CT; treat the root cause.
1 Signs of Hearing Loss in Dogs
I. Causes of dog deafness
1. Structural: outer-ear damage or blockage, inner-ear infection damaging cochlea or ear bones.
2. Neurologic: congenital or acquired. Congenital nerve defects from embryo problems appear in puppies; acquired nerve damage from trauma or infection often brings other neurologic disease (e.g., paralysis), common in old dogs.
3. Tumors: neurofibroma and neurofibrosarcoma.
II. Clinical signs
Unilateral deafness is hard to notice; bilateral loss and slow response to sound are clear – the dog ignores its name, sleeps through noise. Normal puppies like sound toys; deaf ones are indifferent.
III. Diagnosis
1. Ear swab culture: for long-term otitis, culture and pick the right drug to shorten and lessen infection.
2. CT: far more accurate than X-ray but expensive.
IV. Treatment
Find the cause first. For otitis externa or media, swab and culture, pick the right drug to shorten and lessen infection. Hearing aids adapted from human devices exist abroad and work fairly well in dogs.
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