# Ear Hair Question



## Angela (Aug 21, 2010)

I have a SCWT puppy, whose ears get a little dirty. I took her to the vet and she told me that when I get her groomed they will pull out her ear hair fuzz with their fingers. 

Yesterday I took Sophie to get get groomed. They told me that she didn't like getting her ear hair pulled out so they only took out about 1/2 and they would do the rest next time. 

So, why is it necessary to actually PULL the hair out? And why can't they just cut it with scissors? And why does it even _really_ need to get plucked out? I mean, if I gently clean them with animal ear care every week why does the hair need to be removed?

Just wondering from the groomers here what their thoughts are on this? It seems cruel, even though I am assuming it is probably more irritating to the dog rather than painful?


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## cavaliermom (May 28, 2008)

if you don't remove the hair - it will pack up with ear wax and cause a problem with infections which are very smelly. Of course, the dogs don't like it and usually a pre pull powder is put in the ear to numb the ear tissue so that the hair can be removed less painfully. It is something that HAS to be done - just like poodles, portugese water dogs and other breeds.

diane


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## TorachiKatashi (Sep 29, 2010)

This is one of those things that causes big debates in the grooming community. Some people still religiously pluck ear hair, while others refuse to touch the ear hair at all. Both are correct and incorrect at the same time - letting massive amounts of hair build up will allow the ears to gather moisture and gunk and get infected, but plucking all the hair out leaves the hair follicles open to collect dirt and ALSO get infected. Most take a middle-of-the-road approach and will clean the ears as much as they can with their clippers or blunt-nosed scissors.

Most vets are still behind in the times and will lecture all of their patients to make their groomers pluck the ears (even go so far as to just assume that any ear problems a dog has, HAS to be because of unplucked ears), but it's basically the same train of thought as saying vaccines should be given annually and Science Diet is a quality food. Most vets are twenty years behind everyone else.


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## animalcraker (Nov 9, 2006)

All of my dogs are longhaired drop eared breeds that are expected to have to have their ears plucked, but none of mine have it done. I'm in the "if it ain't broken don't fix it" camp. Meaning if their ears aren't constaly dirty or infected then there's no need to pluck the hair out. The only ear infection I've had to deal with was when my cavalier somehow got soil down in his ear. Other than that one time I've never had any other ear issues. I check my dogs ears on a regular basis, it's part of my grooming routine. I also swab out their ears when they get a bath to make sure water hasn't gotten down into the canal. There are some dogs that are prone to constant ear infections, those are the dogs that acutaly need their ears plucked. Most vets and dog people would probably agree that labs are by far one to the top breeds to get ear infections, but labs don't have hair in their ears; so hair in the ear doesn't always equal ear infection.


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## poodleholic (Mar 15, 2007)

I so agree with you, TorachiKatashi! I have 3 Standard Poodles, 2 of whom I lightly pluck, then trim with scissors or clipper, because they don't have much ear hair. The youngest is a hair factory, whose ear hair is prolific, so I have to pluck quite a lot, but never bare. Maddy and Beau are 9 yrs. old, and haven't had an ear infection in 8 yrs. You don't have to pluck bare, like so many think you do.


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## Angela (Aug 21, 2010)

Well I'm glad to know they put a numbing powder in there to alleviate some of the pain  

Balance. 

LOL, something that isn't the most natural thing for me but definitely a great approach to my dogs ears. Have them get 'some' of the hair out. Then they'll be cleaner and easier to keep clean. 

My vet is a bit over the top. She likes to run tests just to make sure... even though there isn't an indication of a problem. This is my first dog so I'm learning. 
She swabbed her ear, IMO it was just normal ear gunk and charged me $30 to test for mites or something -- which she didn't have. Then three weeks later she wanted to test again and I told her no. She doesn't itch at her ears at all and they aren't even that dirty. Just like our ears, they get a little gunk and we clean them. Apparently I just need to clean her ears prior to going to the vet so she doesn't get freaked out. 

But now that she went to the groomers and got some of the hair out, her ears do look a lot cleaner and I have the ear cleaner so I just gotta get in there and clean them. I need to get her used to having people handling her ears. 

Thanks!


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## TorachiKatashi (Sep 29, 2010)

A note on the "numbing" ear powder (which, my understanding was that it made the hair brittle and easy to pull out, not numb the skin, but none the less) - not ALL groomers/vets use it, so make sure you ask. For some reason I can't figure out, there are people who will just wrap all the hair around a pair of hemostats, and yank it all out in one big pull with no powder or anything (as opposed to plucking it out slowly with the powder and their fingers), and as you would expect, the dogs become very sensitive/aggressive about their ears from how much it hurt.

I hate to just kind of dump on vets, but I have to ask - how many vets did you look into? It's unfortunate, but there's an increasing number of vets popping up all over the place who aren't vets as much as they are salesmen. Annual vaccinations, prescription food (which is akin to feeding your dog dirt and rocks), flea/tick preventative that cost twice as much as they do elsewhere, dozens of useless tests. On the groomer forum I'm on (I groomed for a while), there are a number of ladies who used to work in vet clinics and have countless horror stories about vets telling every patient that they needed some such expensive test, then not even run the test, or bulking the owner's bill up with pain meds and such that they didn't even give the dog. I'm not trying to scare you away from vets, just that odds are your vet is only "over the top" about earning money, not about caring for your dog. I know that in smaller areas it can be pretty hard to find another vet, but I know some of those ladies now drive hours away to their vet.


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

*IF* a dog has chronic, recurrent ear infections, then (along with other things) plucking the hair *MIGHT* help manage them. But it's a double edged sword. Yes, air circulation will be better and the canal can stay cleaner without the hair, but any inflammation in the ear canal is a bad thing and can trigger ear infections. If your dog isn't having problems with ear infections, I wouldn't pluck the hair just because they're a little dirty.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

TorachiKatashi said:


> This is one of those things that causes big debates in the grooming community. Some people still religiously pluck ear hair, while others refuse to touch the ear hair at all. Both are correct and incorrect at the same time - letting massive amounts of hair build up will allow the ears to gather moisture and gunk and get infected, but plucking all the hair out leaves the hair follicles open to collect dirt and ALSO get infected. Most take a middle-of-the-road approach and will clean the ears as much as they can with their clippers or blunt-nosed scissors.
> 
> Most vets are still behind in the times and will lecture all of their patients to make their groomers pluck the ears (even go so far as to just assume that any ear problems a dog has, HAS to be because of unplucked ears), but it's basically the same train of thought as saying vaccines should be given annually and Science Diet is a quality food. Most vets are twenty years behind everyone else.


^This!!!
As far as puppies go. If there's something the puppy absolutely can NOT handle at their first groom, we do as little as we can do to get by and forget it until next time. That first haircut is so important, and there is absolutely no reason to ruin a puppys' outlook on grooming by forcing bad experiences. Some puppies don't really care if you finger pluck a few hairs out of their ear canal; others can't seem to stand the feeling. Why push it at such a young age unless there's big trouble with the ears already? There's plenty of time to get pups used to scary stuff--HV dryers, ear plucking, etc--the first haircut is about having a good experience for the pup to build some confidence to support a life time of stress free grooming. JMO of course.



TorachiKatashi said:


> A note on the "numbing" ear powder (which, my understanding was that it made the hair brittle and easy to pull out, not numb the skin, but none the less) - not ALL groomers/vets use it, so make sure you ask. For some reason I can't figure out, there are people who will just wrap all the hair around a pair of hemostats, and yank it all out in one big pull with no powder or anything (as opposed to plucking it out slowly with the powder and their fingers), and as you would expect, the dogs become very sensitive/aggressive about their ears from how much it hurt.
> 
> I hate to just kind of dump on vets, but I have to ask - how many vets did you look into? It's unfortunate, but there's an increasing number of vets popping up all over the place who aren't vets as much as they are salesmen. Annual vaccinations, prescription food (which is akin to feeding your dog dirt and rocks), flea/tick preventative that cost twice as much as they do elsewhere, dozens of useless tests. On the groomer forum I'm on (I groomed for a while), there are a number of ladies who used to work in vet clinics and have countless horror stories about vets telling every patient that they needed some such expensive test, then not even run the test, or bulking the owner's bill up with pain meds and such that they didn't even give the dog. I'm not trying to scare you away from vets, just that odds are your vet is only "over the top" about earning money, not about caring for your dog. I know that in smaller areas it can be pretty hard to find another vet, but I know some of those ladies now drive hours away to their vet.


No matter what the profession, there are crooks. I love all 3 of my vets (yes I have 3 vets, lol). When my cat went in for a urine re-check he got subQ fluids, a urinalysis, exam re-check etc, and they subtracted half of the bill. Mainly because he only got fluids to accumulate in his bladder (so the urinalysis could be performed), and was re-checked within a week. I can't say enough good about finding a vet you feel comfortable with and working WITH them. I had a cat get sick with bone marrow cancer; I put over $1200 into him and would have put more in had the vet said there was any hope. I feel so confident about them because they could have robbed me for every little service and every penny I had, and known all along my cat was going to die.



Angela said:


> Well I'm glad to know they put a numbing powder in there to alleviate some of the pain
> 
> Balance.
> 
> ...


I have used the ear-slides before with HUGE success! (Basically lightly take your index finger and thumb, and lightly "grasp" the base of the ear and slide your fingers down the ears, slowly and repededly). Most dogs, even ones who aren't keen on being handled, learn to relax with this. I did some ear slides on a petrified BC on Thursday who was crouched on my table, shaking like a leaf. He didn't turn into a confident, happy dog, but he visibly relaxed enough for me to stand him up and keep him there. (Thinning mats out instead of brushing them out helped, too). You might be interested in trying this.


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## Liannefrog (Jun 19, 2012)

This info has all been very usefull. we have a 6 month old poodle who has got very thick and large amounts of hair in her ear. its been easy enough getting the small hairs out, but she is clearly caused pain when attempting the bigger ones. 

Could anyone recomend or know of any good hair powders, ideally one that will numb the area. ive looked online but cant find any with numbing. ive also heard that lanacane will do the job?

Thank you


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