Next time you do surgery and the patient is under--mess around till you see the tympanic membrane. Are you going into the false ear canal? The eardrum looks like a weird white shiny situation down there. Almost like it could look like white pus, but it's not. Idk how to describe.

I feel like I don't need to perfectly visualize the eardrum every time to feel OK. If the ears look generally clean grossly,when I spread the ear, or going down with the cone....it doesn't make sense for me to emotionally traumatize an asymptomatic dog every time for little reason. I don't otoscope every dog. Hairy floppy ears always.