# Removing Hair from Inside Ears



## Sasha1/2 (Dec 22, 2011)

How important is it that I pluck the hair from Sasha's floppy ears? She takes bathing and brushing well, but I'm really having to work at getting her to allow me to brush, clean or pluck her ears.


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## firefly (Feb 1, 2012)

Both of my dogs are non-shedders so it is really important to keep their ears clean. When we rescued Clyde, his ears were so overgrown with hair that he had a severe double ear infection. He scratched so badly that he actually made both of his inner ears bleed. It was a very unpleasant experience for the little guy and he would yelp because the medicine burned. Now he is really good about letting me pluck, but I do it very gradually. Every couple of days or so, I will get a tuft of hair or two per ear. It's a lot easier on him than doing it all at once.

My other guy Wally is a freak about his ears and hates for them to be scratched let alone plucked. My husband is really the only one that can clean them. That came from a few weeks of ear touching, scratching, etc., followed by praise and treats. Wally still hates for his ears to be plucked, but he will tolerate my husband trimming it out to keep it from getting too thick or too long. Again, we do this gradually and give him a day or two in between.


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## Abbylynn (Jul 7, 2011)

Leeo and Blu Boy are supposed to have their ears plucked. I have to trim the hair short and use my fingers to gently pluck the hair out a little at a time with them. They had a bad experience years ago when their hair was plucked out very quickly at the vets office. :/ I tried to re-introduce the process in many ways ... but I could not convince them otherwise for the last 5-1/2 years. I have been lucky and this has kept their ears in good condition.


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## Amberbrenn (Feb 27, 2012)

I don't have advice on how to have them enjoy the experience but they make a powder to put in the ears to help you pull it out easier. It just makes it so you can grip it better it doesn't do anything for the pain of pulling it out though. Cleaning ears must be done though in order to prevent infection.


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## Fuzzy Pants (Jul 31, 2010)

Plucking ear hairs is the thing I hate most about grooming at home. I feel so bad because Casbah thinks I'm mad at her when I try to pluck her ears. So finally I decided it was worth it to pay for the groomers at Pet Smart to do it for me.


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## Sasha1/2 (Dec 22, 2011)

Fuzzy Pants said:


> I decided it was worth it to pay for the groomers at Pet Smart to do it for me.


I may do the same thing because Sasha gets mad at me when I try to pluck her ears. 

How quickly will the fur grow back? How often do they need to be plucked?


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## Tankstar (Dec 30, 2006)

why would you need to pluck her ears? I wouldnt think with that mis that ear plucking was needed.


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## Fuzzy Pants (Jul 31, 2010)

Tankstar, if dogs have long hair in their ears they will be more prone to painful ear infections due to reduced air flow which makes it easier for bacteria and yeast to develop.

Sasha1/2, it doesn't cost much to get the ears plucked at Pet Smart and it lasts a few months on my non-shedding Shih Tzu. I suppose I have Casbah's ears plucked every 3-4 months or so and I put a home remedy  in her ears once a month and she hasn't had an ear infection since I've been doing that. But I guess it would depend on how fast your dog's hair grows. I think it is worth it to have it done at PetSmart or elsewhere so as to not have my little fluffball thinking I'm punishing her.


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## Sasha1/2 (Dec 22, 2011)

Fuzzy Pants said:


> Tankstar, if dogs have long hair in their ears they will be more prone to painful ear infections due to reduced air flow which makes it easier for bacteria and yeast to develop.


 Sasha has long hairs in her ears and her ears hang down, they are not upright, so air flow isn't great. I'll watch her ears and have them professionally plucked. Thanks for your ideas.


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## Tankstar (Dec 30, 2006)

Fuzzy Pants said:


> Tankstar, if dogs have long hair in their ears they will be more prone to painful ear infections due to reduced air flow which makes it easier for bacteria and yeast to develop.
> Iam aware of that. Im a groomer. My point is the mix sasha is doesnt need to have the ear hair plucked. And it wont come out very easy at all.
> 
> .


My collie has tons of ear hair and I have a floppy eared beagle. Neither have nore get ear infections. i keep them clean often.
If you really wanted to, you could have them shave out some of the ear hair.


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## Binkalette (Dec 16, 2008)

Tankstar said:


> My collie has tons of ear hair and I have a floppy eared beagle. Neither have nore get ear infections. i keep them clean often.
> If you really wanted to, you could have them shave out some of the ear hair.


A collie and a beagle is not quite the same as the long hair non-shedding breeds when it comes to ear hair. When I got my Lhasa Zoey, I didn't know about ear hair plucking.. I did know about ear cleaning, but that wasn't enough. When she got an ear infection and I took her to the vet, she looked in her ear, grabbed a pair of hemostats and pulled out this BIG ol' glob of hair and wax from somewhere near her brain I imagine.. it's definitely not something that could be shaved out. I bought a pair of hemostats shortly after that and do it myself at home now. I only need to do it once every few months to keep them clean and infection free.

As far as making it enjoyable, my dogs don't like it, but they will tolerate it as long as they get something tasty afterwords.


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## dustinshaw98 (Feb 22, 2012)

I think it hurts when the hair in the inner ear is plucked.


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## Spiritwind (Mar 4, 2011)

Fuzzy Pants said:


> Sasha1/2, it doesn't cost much to get the ears plucked at Pet Smart and it lasts a few months on my non-shedding Shih Tzu. I suppose I have Casbah's ears plucked every 3-4 months or so and I put a home remedy  in her ears once a month and she hasn't had an ear infection since I've been doing that. But I guess it would depend on how fast your dog's hair grows. I think it is worth it to have it done at PetSmart or elsewhere so as to not have my little fluffball thinking I'm punishing her.


Where I work, people can walk in for ear plucking and cleaning, and we just charge $8 to do this, so its cheap. As far as how often to do it, depends on the dog. We have some dogs that come in for grooming every 6-8 wks and everytime they come in for grooming they have tons of hair in their ears.. it grows back so quickly. Other dogs may only need it every few months. Just depends. 

Actually I had a little yorkie come in last week that had ear infections in both ears because it was had been about 6 months since the owner brought it in for ears to be plucked and ears were so full of hair it was crazy! 



Tankstar said:


> My collie has tons of ear hair and I have a floppy eared beagle. Neither have nore get ear infections. i keep them clean often.
> If you really wanted to, you could have them shave out some of the ear hair.


I have yet to see any Collie with hair in the ears like Shih Tzus, Lhasa, poodles or similar breeds. None of my collies have hair in their ears, they have hair right in front of the ear canal, and on the ear leather of course, but not actually down inside the ear.


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## Binkalette (Dec 16, 2008)

dustinshaw98 said:


> I think it hurts when the hair in the inner ear is plucked.


It doesn't appear to. My girls are fine with it, though they act like it tickles a bit. If I accidentally catch a hair from the outside of the ear, that obviously hurts and they let me know about it! The inner ear hair though tends to just kind of pull out like cotton candy, it's not stuck in very well to begin with.


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## Sasha1/2 (Dec 22, 2011)

dustinshaw98 said:


> I think it hurts when the hair in the inner ear is plucked.


If the dog has an infection, I bet it does hurt, which is why I want to take care of Sasha's ears.


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## Tankstar (Dec 30, 2006)

Binkalette said:


> A collie and a beagle is not quite the same as the long hair non-shedding breeds when it comes to ear hair. When I got my Lhasa Zoey, I didn't know about ear hair plucking.. I did know about ear cleaning, but that wasn't enough. When she got an ear infection and I took her to the vet, she looked in her ear, grabbed a pair of hemostats and pulled out this BIG ol' glob of hair and wax from somewhere near her brain I imagine.. it's definitely not something that could be shaved out. I bought a pair of hemostats shortly after that and do it myself at home now. I only need to do it once every few months to keep them clean and infection free.
> 
> As far as making it enjoyable, my dogs don't like it, but they will tolerate it as long as they get something tasty afterwords.


yes and a lhasa is also much different then the OPs dog. which is why I rbough up my dogs. 

I know all about ear plucking, I do it often and daily, as Im a dog groomer. My point was given the mix of the OPs dog, plucking ear hair is not done on those breeds. and it will probably hurt said dog, as it doesnt have a non shedding type of coat that dogs who generally have ear hair plucked.


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## Tankstar (Dec 30, 2006)

Spiritwind said:


> I have yet to see any Collie with hair in the ears like Shih Tzus, Lhasa, poodles or similar breeds. None of my collies have hair in their ears, they have hair right in front of the ear canal, and on the ear leather of course, but not actually down inside the ear.


Yes my point exactly. I have yet to see a mix such as the ops dog needing this done.

The OPs pointis the dog has floppy ears with hair. So I brought up my 2 dogs. whom neither have issues, ever. due to me just keeping them cleaned out.


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