ABSTRACT
Studies of disease prevalence in dogs and cats, particularly those based on hospital admission data, suggest that ear diseases are common. Estimates of the frequency of presentation range from 7.5-16.5% for dogs and 2-6.2% for cats1-4. However, although Grono5 noted a presenting frequency of 4.8% for dogs, in line with other estimates, he also noted that the incidence of otitis externa detected during clinical examination of these dogs rose to between 16% and 25%. Thus, the ability of an owner to detect otitis externa does not appear to be very good. This has implications for treatment since chronic otitis results in permanent stenosis of the lumen and this is an indication for surgery.
