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Greetings! Ear Cropping Nightmare :(

25K views 85 replies 12 participants last post by  Hera 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone!

I just want to greet everyone on this forum and start with a big thank you. The forum has already been very helpful with different subjects.

We have cropped Hera's ears here in Houston. However, her stitches have already popped once (from the bottom part on the left ear) and now the right ear is looking similar to how the left ear looked like when the stitch popped (yellow tint and white meat showing). They charged us 65$ to stitch up the left ear only and it seems like they added an extra stitch on bottom compared to the right ear (which now is looking very bad). We are extremely worried about her. She's our first Dobie girl and this is our first cropping. Everything seems to be going wrong with this procedure. Her ears have also been posted and taped already since day one of the surgery (the tech said that this avoids any ear shrinking and ensures that the ears stand better). I can only imagine that the stitches are having issues not only holding the ear's wound, but now the stitch has to hold the ear together under the pressure of the posts. She's back in her regular cone and has no access to her ears. She's on tranquilizers and sleeps all the time so "head shaking" is out of the question to her stitches popping. Please, if you can provide any feedback, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
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#74 ·
Crop Pictures

I just realized I haven't uploaded any photos of her in forever! Let me attach a few. These were taken yesterday (12/06/2017). She was posted on Saturday (12/02/2017). We are going back to post her again on Saturday, in Katy. I can't go this week due to work so I was forced to post her myself. The first picture where she's snoozing is of the vet's posts. The other is mine.

Snoozin' by Rolando Alvarado, on Flickr

Hera's Posts Round 1 (2) by Rolando Alvarado, on Flickr

Hera's Posts Round 1 (3) by Rolando Alvarado, on Flickr

Hera's Posts Round 1 (4) by Rolando Alvarado, on Flickr
 
#75 ·
I love her little sweater :) Looks like she's doing well and the ears are coming along. So much better!
 
#76 ·
What a sweetie! Wow! Her ears look so much better.

Seeing those pics, I would be seriously tempted to leave them down after your next go around with posting. The caveat is, that if you see any sign of failure, you repost as soon as is reasonably possible.

Our oldest boy has short ears. He was extremely ill as a puppy and his body was trying so hard to live that his ears were an issue. We cut a good inch off of them and never posted again. Having been so sick early on, he really never grew. He is a 68 lb, very "fine boy".
He is beautiful and his ears suit him very well.

John
Portland OR
 
#77 ·
John, do you have an Instagram where I can see his ears? Not many dogs have this short crop. I'm worried she will look funny since the bell is somewhat more wide than I wanted it--however, I also don't really care anymore. I just want her to be healthy!

The only thing I noticed is that one ear seems to be more centered than the other--as in one ear is facing out and the other is facing slightly back and not so centered. Is this detrimental?

Thanks for the sweater compliments! We purchased it at Marshall's. I think she needs something thicker though. She scratches at herself excessively. She's been given Simple Guard 3 twice (the last dose given was 12/01/2017), so it can't be fleas or ticks. She also bites her butt, her privates, and her hind legs a lot. Anxiety?
 
#79 ·
Hi Hera, I really don't have a pic of our boy's short ears. There is one on my Gallery here on DT, but it is kind of difficult to see. It's the last pic. He's the little guy with the short ears. The other was are big boy with huge ears who passed a while back. McCoy, our 3 yo has a very typical show crop.

John
 
#80 ·
John, I'm very sorry for your loss. I looked through your gallery, but I didn't see a dobie with short ears. Maybe not all your photos are loading on my end. I guess Hera will stand out as the odd ball with her short ears, but she'll be our odd ball. lol:laugh:
 
#81 ·
Hera. There is a member here with a boy who has a very short military style crop. His name is "Chase". He is one of my favorite dogs to look at. I've often referred to him as the biggest badass dog on DT.

If the link pulls up, here is a thread with a bunch of photos with Chase and his little "sister" Harley.

http://www.dobermantalk.com/doberman-related-chat/294434-harley-8-months-old.html#post3889946

John

Uh.. I'm pretty sure that you can figure out which one is Chase. LOL
 
#82 ·
Today, the post on the lower part of the right ear is continuing to pop out. I taped it up a little better because there was some tape lacking in that lower base of the ear. I'm waiting for the Torbot glue to arrive next week so the post are more secure when I have to put them in myself. I saw the vet use that adhesive and there seemed to be no reaction with the inside of the ear. So I ordered that instead of OstoBond.
 
#85 ·
Torbot and OsteoBond are virtually identical latex based skin adhesives--you can use them interchangeably.

See Melbrod's post below--if the bottom of the post pops out of the ear you really should just take it down and repost it from the start. The reason it did that is that it wasn't quite posted correctly in the first place.

The most common reason for puppies to pop posts out is that either the post wasn't far enough down in the ear in the first place or that it wasn't taped far enough down on the bottom of the postings.

The problem with pushing it in and trying to just add tape is that it will keep trying to pop out and when it does it pushes the ear sort of over the top of the head--creates pockets that way.
 
#83 ·
It seems to me that a lot of the time when a post is popping out, it is easier to just replace the entire job than to try to “fix” the original posting. If I got it wrong when I did that posting, it stays wrong :) So I start over and usually get it better on my second effort.

One way or another, as you seem to know I guess (looking at your text), if a post pops out of the ear, it has to be re-taped or replaced right away to correct the problem.

I’m hazarding a guess here--but I would think in an emergency, if you’re out and about for just an hour or two when a post pops out that you can’t put back, it would be better to take the post down and leave the ear un-posted until you can get home, than to keep it posted with the base popped out--a matter of just the weight of the un-posted ear pulling it down vs the ear plus the post bending the ear crooked. I do usually travel with some posting supplies in my car if I am taking a dog out playing or hiking for a few hours, just so I can repair things if the dog’s posts get wet or go wonky.
 
#84 ·
I'll replace the post when I get back from work/school. If it's popped out when I go to lunch, I'll try to redo both posts in a jiffy then. I just need them to last tonight and tomorrow for when we get them re-posted. She gets super frustrated when the posts pops out from the bottom. I just see her shaking her head like a maniac out of nowhere and scratching at the tape too. Once I pop the bottom back in (this has happened 3x btw), she chills out and lays down to play with her toys.
 
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