[arthurmberger]

Fritz has had all his shots and is now ready for his first grooming! I am getting some different messages from friends about how ears should be maintained. I understand that hair in the ears is plucked and this is part of the process of cleaning. Some friends say this is fine and is done gently, but one friend says that she does not believe it is necessary, and that irritation from the tweezers can cause an infection.

Any opinions? Your thoughts will be appreciated.


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[fjm]

I talked to my vet about this recently - the informed opinion now seems to be too avoid plucking the ears as far as possible. I clip as much hair away as I can, and then carefully remove more with small ball-ended scissors, and Poppy's ears have stayed trouble free. I think there are several reasons to avoid it - done badly or in a hurry it can hurt the dog and make them unhappy about grooming in the future, and it can cause broken skin which in turn can lead to infection.

 

[Mufar42]

My groomer leaves a bit on the outside edge and will pluck when it builds up in the inner ear. When I pluck his ears I use some grooming powder and always keep some on my fingers then just pull, he doesn't even feel it. I keep it clean enough that some air can circulate within his ear and I am careful it doesn't build up deep in his ear. Afterwards I use some ear cleaning solution and ear cleaning solution and clean up with a cotton pad.

 

[Dechi]

I do it about lightly every 2-3 months to my dogs. With my bare hands. I like to control the amount of air in the ear canal.

This is definitely a subject where opinions diverge.

 

[Skylar]

I talked to my vet about this recently - the informed opinion now seems to be too avoid plucking the ears as far as possible. I clip as much hair away as I can, and then carefully remove more with small ball-ended scissors, and Poppy's ears have stayed trouble free. I think there are several reasons to avoid it - done badly or in a hurry it can hurt the dog and make them unhappy about grooming in the future, and it can cause broken skin which in turn can lead to infection.

I don’t pluck, my vet recommended not plucking and many trustworthy sites on the internet say not to pluck. Like fjm I keep my dog’s ears trimmed. I had a tpoo for 20 years who I also groomed and never plucked. Never had an ear infection in my tpoo or my current

I do bath my dog every two weeks and wipe her ears out, trim any hair and look for potential problems such as build up of wax or redness and/or smell which could be an early indicator of a problem.

However both my tpoo and current minipoo don’t have a lot of hair inside their external canal, maybe if my dogs had very thick hair in the exterior ear canal, or an infection I might make a different choice.

 

[lily cd re]

I think at some level it depends on the dog. Lily has a finer coat and does not grow much hair in her ears, so I don't pluck her ears. Javelin has had ear issues because he grows tons of hair deep in the ear canal and tends to not have good air circulation because of it. He can then also end up with wax building up in the hair, so for him I pluck. I try to keep on top of it so he doesn't end up with a yucky mess.

 

[MaizieFrosty]

I never ever thought I'd pluck the ears...until I got Frosty. He has so much thick hair in his ears, the vet couldn't even examine him. I use powder and a hemostat and go very, very slowly and pull as few hairs at a time as possible. There is never blood or irritation because I'm not yanking out a million hairs at once like some groomers do. Maizie doesn't have as much hair, so I just keep her ears cleaned and trim the hair with blunt tip baby scissors.

 

[Moni]

My vet urged me (or actually begged me!) not to pluck. She says she sees the worst chronic infections in ears that were plucked. Then I took Louie to my friend for his very first groom (and literally while I walked away for one second while I was in the bathroom) poor Louie got his ears plucked with my friend saying she "had to" because he has so much hair. Of course 2 days later he came down with the worst ear infection - his ears were full of dried blood! To say my vet was mad at me would be an understatement. No more plucking since, and no more ear issues since. I always wondered if a nose hair trimmer would do a nice job with ear hairs (since it is literally a rotating mini blade - anybody ever try it?

 

[Mufar42]

Nav and Rennmust have similar ear hair LOL. His is pretty deep and thick if I don't stay on top of it. Just a few finger plucks at a time is all I do but it keeps the air circulating. When I did not his eyes watered more and he had the worst ever ear infection. Now that I am proactive with his ears we are good.

 

[lily cd re]

MF and Mufar I guess all of our boys have hair factories in their ear canals. And MF Maizie and Lily sound like their ears are very similar. As those who do pluck have said just a little bit at a time with powder seems to do the trick and avoids adverse outcomes at the same time.

 

[arthurmberger]

Thanks for the info, it’s been really helpful.


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