Your dog has an ear infection and needs medication. Take him to the vet.

Go to the pet store and get some ear cleaner. You should ideally be cleaning your dogs ears a couple times a month. Follow the directions on the bottle, use a gauze and dont go too deep. If your dog has alot of pain take him in to have the vet work on your dogs ears - it may be too much for you and your pet. If you dont take care of this your dog can develope HUGE problems including seizures....take care of this right away please. Good luck

Thanks, Mazer. I know he needs to see the vet, but I'm disabled and just plain don't have the money until the first of the month. Plus, he's only been "my dog" for a couple of weeks now---he's a stray that adopted me.

I remember once being told I could clean dogs' ears with a solution of something I could mix up at home, but I don't remember exactly what it was I want to say it was equal parts of water, alcohol, and peroxide---sound right to you?

Do not put alcohol in the dog's ears. If there are any raw areas from him scratching or from infection the alcohol is going to cause him a lot of pain.

I think the best you can do now is gently wipe the ears with some mineral oil.
I suggest calling the vet and explaining the situation and asking if they can work something out on payment. The first of the month is a long time for your dog to wait with painful ears.

I am not a vet & this is not intended to be veterinary advice, or advice at all.

If that were my dog, I'd get some penicillin from the feed store & give it to him orally or subcutaneously (I can get syringes at the feed store as well).

I would say that it is for my horse.

The last time I got penicillin, it was about $13.00.

I'd ask the person at the feed store, or call a friendly vet tech, to find out the dosage for a dog of my dog's weight.

I'd also clean the ears & pull out any hair that's matted up inside there;
ears can be cleaned with any "pure" oil (no fragrance) such as olive oil or mineral oil.

I think you can use witch hazel to clean dogs' ears. I used that on my old dog from time to time after seeing it as the main ingredient in some pet ear cleaner at a health food store.

It sounds like an infection and most likely he will need to see the vet and get some medications. Dont leave it too long because ear infections can get very bad quickly.

If you want to try an ear cleaner first then try some Epi-otic from the pet store. It's not expensive at all and is good for getting any ear wax deep down to work it's way out of the ear. I use it on my dogs every couple of weeks after their bath but read the directions and massage it down into the ears for a few minutes.

once there is a bad odour to the ears though it's usually an infection so I dont think you'll have luck treating this at home

For now, clean with peroxide. Then, swab with baby oil. Do this twice a day. Problem solved. Or: you can get ear cleaning solution and mitacide through the internet at affordable $$ and probably don't need to bother with vet bills. For decades, I have used this method on both dogs and cats --- never had to make a vet call for ear problems.

IMHO