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To Pluck, Or Not To Pluck


Clyde
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That was a mercy plucking!!!

:)

Try saying that fast a few times. :D

:) I dare not!!

That was a mercy plucking

That was a mercy plucking

That was a mercy plucking

That was a Percy Mucking......... hmmmm who's he then? ;)

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How could they not smell it? :o

Icky yeasty, grotty ears stand out like proverbial dog's you-know-whats!! I can smell yeasty ears at 20 paces!!! Every single one of my dogs, short or long-coated gets the "sniff" test every day and if they even whiff of failing muster, they're attacked with ear cleaner!!

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Poor mini! My groomer teacher used to keep all of such "undesirable hair items" in a ziplock and present them to the owners when they pick up the dogs. She said it was to show tthe owners what had been removed. It happened on several occasions that upon removing that much gunk, the ear canals of the dogs got sore and actually required medical attention. Owners generally blamed the groomer not knowing that an infection was there in the first place.

We keep the really bad stuff too.

I think with some of them the ears have got that way over time and the dogs just learn to live with it, when you remove it all and pull such disgusting masses out it is a new sudden irritation to the dog and they shake their heads and scratch.

How some dogs can still hear is amazing.

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One of my mini schnauzers doen't get much hair in his ears, I pluck him every few months and he has never had a problem.

My little girl gets a tonne in her ears and will come up and present her ear when she's having a normal scratch and cuddle and loves to have it pulled out and then tries to eat it :rolleyes: :thumbsup: She's an interesting critter, that's for sure!

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How could they not smell it? :)

Icky yeasty, grotty ears stand out like proverbial dog's you-know-whats!! I can smell yeasty ears at 20 paces!!! Every single one of my dogs, short or long-coated gets the "sniff" test every day and if they even whiff of failing muster, they're attacked with ear cleaner!!

Well now you've all got me paranoid. I do pluck my Lakeland's ears when there's hair there, should I be using an ear cleaning solution regularly?

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How could they not smell it? :)

Icky yeasty, grotty ears stand out like proverbial dog's you-know-whats!! I can smell yeasty ears at 20 paces!!! Every single one of my dogs, short or long-coated gets the "sniff" test every day and if they even whiff of failing muster, they're attacked with ear cleaner!!

Well now you've all got me paranoid. I do pluck my Lakeland's ears when there's hair there, should I be using an ear cleaning solution regularly?

No.Ear solution doesnt need to be used just because.If your dogs ears are well maintained & you are checking regulary then best not to interfer.If you see any sign of "stuff: then we will flush & wash.

The main key is paying attention

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How could they not smell it? :)

Icky yeasty, grotty ears stand out like proverbial dog's you-know-whats!! I can smell yeasty ears at 20 paces!!! Every single one of my dogs, short or long-coated gets the "sniff" test every day and if they even whiff of failing muster, they're attacked with ear cleaner!!

Well now you've all got me paranoid. I do pluck my Lakeland's ears when there's hair there, should I be using an ear cleaning solution regularly?

No.Ear solution doesnt need to be used just because.If your dogs ears are well maintained & you are checking regulary then best not to interfer.If you see any sign of "stuff: then we will flush & wash.

The main key is paying attention

Thanks for that, I meant to ask her breeder when I saw her at the Western Classic but we were chatting about other things and I forgot!

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I'm a plucker! (I dunnae if that came out as dirty as it looked...) Won't touch ears that don't need it, but will definitely get rid of the hair in the oodles, poodles, bichons etc.

For the life of me I don't understand why groomers are constantly blamed for getting ears wet and 'causing' infections. If 'wet ears' alone was the cause then 'all of my dogs' should have ear infections 'all of the time.' How can 'water alone' be blamed? Sure if a dog had a solid plug of hair in it's ear and it got wet and couldn't' dry out, it would set up ideal conditions for fungal growth. Sure, water 'feeds' an existing fungal growth the moisture it needs to survive so care needs to be taken not to add to that but for people to blame 'water alone' seems bizarre. It's more the 'inability to dry out properly' that should be blamed rather than just the 'getting wet', that's why I am big on doing what ever it takes to make this possible so if that means plucking, I feel I have to do some out of common sense.

:laugh: I think I love you! Here is a conversation I had a couple of days ago (general gist):

Owner: my vet said for you to block my dog's ears this time I HAVE TOLD YOU BEFORE they get infected the vet said it was your fault

Me: we do block the ears...

Owner: well obviously water is getting in there somehow!

Me: does your dog have much contact with water besides when she is being groomed?

Owner: well we do take her swimming every weekend but the vet said it was the groomer's fault!

:thumbsup:

We also keep big goobies that come out of doggies, their dreadlocked coats, faces, eye gunk, gross butt dreads, ear gunk, between pads. It's a lot safer to than not, because when the owner comes back and blames us for skin infection/grass seed/infected ear etc we show them the baggie and they can't really say much (or continue to blame us anyway. Sigh).

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Following on from this thread http://www.dolforums.com.au/index.php?show...161507&st=0.

I used to always be a plucker. However at a grooming workshop I went to last year they advocated no plucking stating recent research by top vets etc.

I then relaxed a bit on the plucking front, still did some but not anal about it the way I used to be.

Spoke to my vet the other day who recently went to a seminar spoken by some well known Dermatologist whose name escapes me, where she also has recently started advocating no plucking. She says that new research shows that plucking simply aggravates the hair follicles , or something along the lines - I can't remember specifics. Anyway, her research shows that dogs who are plucked are more likely to experience ear problems and/or pain (obviously).

I can't make up my mind so I half pluck. If it's a breed where I think the ear would get too dense, then I air it out a little, but if it's a breed where it just gets the whirly strand I leave it.

I now tend to clip a bit where I used to pluck too.

What do you do?

So you are only a half pleasant......woops

Pheasant plucker! :thumbsup:

Happy Birthday too.

Anyway I pluck Gracies snout near her stop, other wise the fur fans out in front of her eyes. But if the new thought is to trim would be happy to do that. She's not for showing so whatever is practical and works I will do.

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I groomed a just 5 month old Poodle puppy today, it had totally disgusting ears :laugh:

the canals were totally full of hair and sticking crud, this is what came out of one ear!

Image2.jpg

what? how? whoa! 5 months? one ear?!?

I have since stuck my fingers in each of my guy's ears to make nothing wet or sticky...so far so good. Got the scissors tho and trimmed close to the orifice. But am unable to pluck!

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