If you feel like your dog has been ignoring you, you might want to get his hearing checked. Failing to respond to verbal commands or showing confusion when commands are given could indicate that your dog is suffering from hearing loss. If the loss is temporary, your dog's hearing should return following treatment, but a permanent loss can't be cured or reversed.
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Temporary Hearing Loss
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Temporary hearing loss can occur when wax builds up inside a dog's ear canal. Breeds with narrow ear canals, including poodles, face an increased risk of this condition. Hair around the ears can cause a blockage in the ear canal when it collects wax, especially in terrier breeds and cocker spaniels. Middle ear or inner ear infections, a foreign object in the ear and trauma from exposure to loud noises such as shotguns can also result in temporary hearing loss.
Permanent Hearing Loss
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Causes of permanent hearing loss include untreated ear infections, noise trauma and injuries. Certain antibiotics can destroy the cochlear hair cells, leading to deafness. General anesthesia can also cause permanent hearing loss, although the cause for this is unknown. It can also occur due to old age or inherited deafness, which is most common in Dalmatians. Breeds with piebald spots, such as beagles and English setters, and breeds with merle colored coats, such as Shetland sheepdogs and Australian shepherds, also face a higher risk for inherited deafness. Congenital defects can cause some dogs to be born deaf.
Signs of Deafness
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Signs of deafness include excessive barking, foul-smelling discharge in the ears and lack of response to outside sounds such as doorbells. Your dog might also paw at its ears, look in the wrong direction when called or shake its head frequently. If your dog isn't aware that you're near until you touch her, this can also indicate hearing loss. You can clap loudly once while standing behind your dog to test her hearing at home. Your veterinarian will check your dog's ear canals for injury, wax build-up, infections or foreign objects. If none of these are found, your veterinarian will perform a procedure known as Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response, which uses electrodes to measure how your dog responds to outside stimuli.
Treatment
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Using a prescription wash daily to keep your dog's ears clean will remove wax build-up and restore his hearing. Making sure your dog's ears stay clean on a regular basis can prevent hearing loss from happening again. Your veterinarian can remove any hair causing a blockage. Medications can help clear up infections. Permanent hearing loss can't be treated, but your dog can eventually adapt to this condition. Some breeders try to reduce the risk of inherited deafness by preventing breeding in hearing-impaired dogs in breeds predisposed to deafness.
Warning
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You'll need to take extra precautions to keep your dog safe outside. Place a bell on your dog's collar so you'll be able to hear where she goes in case she gets lost. Use simple hand signals to communicate with your dog. Always keep your dog on a leash or in an enclosed yard when she's outside to prevent her from running into the street, since she can't hear traffic.
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