 Text messages. Could you ask the doctor? I was swimming this weekend and I feel like I have water in my ears. I've tried drops and it just burns. Anything else I can do? Oh, OK. Well, if it burns, they might have been trying rubbing alcohol. Rubbing alcohol works pretty well for drying out the ear. If there is water down in the ear canal. The problem is if there is any again, you know, any any inflammation of the canal skin and so on, it can sting and it can burn quite a bit.