my oldie's suddenly spry...

[maggiefc]

my twelve year old lab is ussually not very livley. she sleeps about ten hours a day. Or, at least, she used to. Recently, she had a very thorough bath. My dad scrubbed out her ears, which we haven't done in a while. After her bath, she became very needy. she's wanted her head petted almost constantly. She's cut her sleeping down to about 5 hours, and seems very cheerful. Could it be that she had an infection in her ear that was bringing her down, and my dad got rid of it? we can't think of anything else, as she just seems so peppy, not like anything is bothering her.

[puttycat2k]

I am not sure what would cause the change in the dog, besides being needy, being cheerful sounds like a good improvement. I have a black lab mix and she is so sweet but real hyper.
Cristy

[Canislupess]

She probably just feels invigourated after her bath. I know in hot weather, I hose mine down to cool them off and they turn into a couple of live wires afterwards. I know I like the feeling of being squeaky clean after a good shower.

A good brushing or combing each day will help to keep her feeling good. Kind of like us having a good old scratch in a morning.

An ear infection would cause her to scratch her ears a lot, discharge would be evident, she would probably hold her head tilted to the affected side too and shake her head a lot and her balance might well be affected. If she didn't have those things, I doubt it was an ear infection.
You should check over her whole body regularly anyway as a routine when grooming to look out for such things as ear infections.

[maggiefc]

Well, it doesn't seem like she had any of the symptoms of an ear infection. Maggie being cheerful is a improvment. :) thax 4 ur help!