[Brittni6612]

Hey guys ! So I recently got my Doberman and everything has been great but his ears are a little bit of a struggle for me. I’ve followed instruction by my breeder with his cup after he got his ears cropped and I let his ears heal. I then followed the backer rod method forum on here and what I’ve run into is some gunky stuff in his ears. I will post pictures of what it looks like. I’m not sure how his is happening. I also used all supplies recommended, I think I might switch over to the zip tie method. I also feel like the tape is a
Little rough on his ears, it’s the Zonas tape as recommended on the forum. This is my first time so I don’t know what’s normal and what’s not normal please help.

Please help

 

[dobebug]

The goopy suff a the base of the post (where it's in the ear) is probably nothing except ear wax--just having the post in the ear seem to encourage the formation of ear wax (possible because it's basically something of an irritant. Sometimes you'll pull a post out and there will be enough wax on the end that it looks black.

Use your nose when ears are posted--the ears should smell like nothing except warm puppy and adhesive tape. If the puppy seems to be rubbing, scratching or doing a lot of head shaking (which shouldn't be the case with a properly posted ear) take them down and check to make sure the post was all the way down in the ear and that nothing inside the ear is raw.

Are you using Uni-Solve to take the ears down? If you are using either Johnson & Johnson Zonas or Coach/Sport tape and you are using enough of the Uni-Solve to dissolve the adhesive you should not be pulling a bunch of hair out. I'd say from the look of the tape with the hair attatched that you have not used enough. I use lots--I make sure that the surface of the tape is wet and the tape will practically fall off. Also I stopped trying to use q-tips to soak the tape--I use a hypodermic syrnge with a tiny plastic tip (not a needle) to apply the Uni-Solve. The puppy will always lose a few hairs but not like what shows on that piece of tape,

And you are putting the brace too high up--Brances should be as close to the bottom of the post on the skull--up that high you run the risk of the puppy entangling it on something AND I actually want the ears to tip out a little--those high braces kind of encourage having the posts tip in and invite getting a pocket started.

Hope this helps.

dobebug

 

[Brittni6612]

The goopy suff a the base of the post (where it's in the ear) is probably nothing except ear wax--just having the post in the ear seem to encourage the formation of ear wax (possible because it's basically something of an irritant. Sometimes you'll pull a post out and there will be enough wax on the end that it looks black.

Use your nose when ears are posted--the ears should smell like nothing except warm puppy and adhesive tape. If the puppy seems to be rubbing, scratching or doing a lot of head shaking (which shouldn't be the case with a properly posted ear) take them down and check to make sure the post was all the way down in the ear and that nothing inside the ear is raw.

Are you using Uni-Solve to take the ears down? If you are using either Johnson & Johnson Zonas or Coach/Sport tape and you are using enough of the Uni-Solve to dissolve the adhesive you should not be pulling a bunch of hair out. I'd say from the look of the tape with the hair attatched that you have not used enough. I use lots--I make sure that the surface of the tape is wet and the tape will practically fall off. Also I stopped trying to use q-tips to soak the tape--I use a hypodermic syrnge with a tiny plastic tip (not a needle) to apply the Uni-Solve. The puppy will always lose a few hairs but not like what shows on that piece of tape,

And you are putting the brace too high up--Brances should be as close to the bottom of the post on the skull--up that high you run the risk of the puppy entangling it on something AND I actually want the ears to tip out a little--those high braces kind of encourage having the posts tip in and invite getting a pocket started.

Hope this helps.

dobebug

I took his post out before work and can repost them around lunch time. He wasn't doing much scratching or head shaking until yesterday and this morning but thats when I checked and saw all the gunk so then I thought maybe that was the reason? I feel like I had the post all the way down and I stretched his ears as much as possible. I did not angle them into his ear just out them straight down, do I need to angle them at all? I did not use unisolve but I just ordered some so I will make sure to use that next time! and then as far as the brace thank you for that advice! I will do that lower

 

[dobebug]

How many days was he posted? Depending on where you are and the temperatures and humidity it can vary between 3 days to even a week in ideal conditions--cool, dry with low humidity.

When you put the post in, twist it a little as your are doing that it will help to make sure you have the post all the way down in the ear canal. A puppies ear canal basically would be straight down--if it needs to be angled when you are putting the post in you might need to aim it a little toward the front (nose end) of his head.

When I say I want the post to tip out--I mean that I don't want them to tip in over the top of the head toward each other. So when I start the taping (after the post is in the ear I'll tip it out a little and if you are using a bridge--you can set the bridge to keep them tipped out a big. You just don't want them tip toward each other --usually a puppy at attention will pull his ears more uprigth--you really want them to not end up tipping toward each other.

You'll love the Uni-Solve--it makes taking ears down so easy for you and the puppy.

dobebug

dobebug

 

[Brittni6612]

How many days was he posted? Depending on where you are and the temperatures and humidity it can vary between 3 days to even a week in ideal conditions--cool, dry with low humidity.

When you put the post in, twist it a little as your are doing that it will help to make sure you have the post all the way down in the ear canal. A puppies ear canal basically would be straight down--if it needs to be angled when you are putting the post in you might need to aim it a little toward the front (nose end) of his head.

When I say I want the post to tip out--I mean that I don't want them to tip in over the top of the head toward each other. So when I start the taping (after the post is in the ear I'll tip it out a little and if you are using a bridge--you can set the bridge to keep them tipped out a big. You just don't want them tip toward each other --usually a puppy at attention will pull his ears more uprigth--you really want them to not end up tipping toward each other.

You'll love the Uni-Solve--it makes taking ears down so easy for you and the puppy.

dobebug

dobebug

I posted his ears this last Saturday 05/21 and it has been hot outside. He is a inside pup but I do take him outside we live in sunny California and have had a hot couple of days
so I will probably have to change them every 3 days. I am gonna clean his ears out and make sure he has no sores then repost. Once I repost I'll give some update photos on here, I definitely need some Uni-Solve in my life because his poor ears have gotten so much hair taken out from the tape

 

[dobebug]

Where in California are you--heat all by itself doesn't necessarily mean you need to post every three days. When I was in Sacramento--which is fairly humid because of all the rivers--if it got hot it also tended to be more humid. In Southern California--LA for me--that's basically desert and when it gets hot often the humidity was low and I could leave ears up 3 or 4 days. Sometimes even 5 days. There are some places where the heat and humidity are practically identical, 85 degrees and 90 % humidity and you are changing posts every 2 days. In Portland, Oregon (that's the left hand one) humdity is not often an issue but for about seven months of the water is--just plain old rain. We learn all the ways to keep posts dry and still be able to keep the posts dry (ask me about the guy who used a pair of condoms--yes, really--he said it worked better than anything else he'd ever tried.

Oh yes, and try to avoid taking his posts down when you can't stick around long enough to put them back up right a way.

If you don't have Uni-Solve you can use any kind of oil that will act as a mess but effective adhesive release agent. I've use various kind of cooking oil--Olive oil, Wesson oil, mineral oil (baby oil works but I don't use it because they perfume it and it stinks) I even resorted to a pat of butter stolen at dinner by a breeder and I who were trying to repost a puppy.

The trick with oils is to have a small container of it and keep dipping your fingers in it and rubbing them along the edges of the tape--as the edges loosen you can start using q-tips to get further under the tape but I just keep goopin more oil onto the tape and freeing it as it loosens.

If you are using oil of any kind you do need to make sure you have all the oil off before you repost or the new tape won't stick. I use a cup of water with a few drops of the old regular Dawn detergent--it's an excellent degreaser and not toxic--they use it to degrease waterfowl who have been oil soaked in an oil spill.

And the best news of all is that when you finish posting ears, all that hair than came out will grow back--it always does.

dobebug--now I have no excuse not to go mow some lawns.

 

[Brittni6612]

Where in California are you--heat all by itself doesn't necessarily mean you need to post every three days. When I was in Sacramento--which is fairly humid because of all the rivers--if it got hot it also tended to be more humid. In Southern California--LA for me--that's basically desert and when it gets hot often the humidity was low and I could leave ears up 3 or 4 days. Sometimes even 5 days. There are some places where the heat and humidity are practically identical, 85 degrees and 90 % humidity and you are changing posts every 2 days. In Portland, Oregon (that's the left hand one) humdity is not often an issue but for about seven months of the water is--just plain old rain. We learn all the ways to keep posts dry and still be able to keep the posts dry (ask me about the guy who used a pair of condoms--yes, really--he said it worked better than anything else he'd ever tried.

Oh yes, and try to avoid taking his posts down when you can't stick around long enough to put them back up right a way.

If you don't have Uni-Solve you can use any kind of oil that will act as a mess but effective adhesive release agent. I've use various kind of cooking oil--Olive oil, Wesson oil, mineral oil (baby oil works but I don't use it because they perfume it and it stinks) I even resorted to a pat of butter stolen at dinner by a breeder and I who were trying to repost a puppy.

The trick with oils is to have a small container of it and keep dipping your fingers in it and rubbing them along the edges of the tape--as the edges loosen you can start using q-tips to get further under the tape but I just keep goopin more oil onto the tape and freeing it as it loosens.

If you are using oil of any kind you do need to make sure you have all the oil off before you repost or the new tape won't stick. I use a cup of water with a few drops of the old regular Dawn detergent--it's an excellent degreaser and not toxic--they use it to degrease waterfowl who have been oil soaked in an oil spill.

And the best news of all is that when you finish posting ears, all that hair than came out will grow back--it always does.

dobebug--now I have no excuse not to go mow some lawns.

I am in Sacramento so I'll just keep a close eye on his ears before I change them and see what works better. I definitely don't wanna keep his post out for long so I will make sure to also stay on top of that. If the Uni-solve doesn't come in In time I'm gonna use oil because it just pulls out to much hair ! I am glad to hear that it grows back because I was getting kind of worried about that. Thank you for all the great info

 

[Brittni6612]

I am in Sacramento so I'll just keep a close eye on his ears before I change them and see what works better. I definitely don't wanna keep his post out for long so I will make sure to also stay on top of that. If the Uni-solve doesn't come in In time I'm gonna use oil because it just pulls out to much hair ! I am glad to hear that it grows back because I was getting kind of worried about that. Thank you for all the great info

Where in California are you--heat all by itself doesn't necessarily mean you need to post every three days. When I was in Sacramento--which is fairly humid because of all the rivers--if it got hot it also tended to be more humid. In Southern California--LA for me--that's basically desert and when it gets hot often the humidity was low and I could leave ears up 3 or 4 days. Sometimes even 5 days. There are some places where the heat and humidity are practically identical, 85 degrees and 90 % humidity and you are changing posts every 2 days. In Portland, Oregon (that's the left hand one) humdity is not often an issue but for about seven months of the water is--just plain old rain. We learn all the ways to keep posts dry and still be able to keep the posts dry (ask me about the guy who used a pair of condoms--yes, really--he said it worked better than anything else he'd ever tried.

Oh yes, and try to avoid taking his posts down when you can't stick around long enough to put them back up right a way.

If you don't have Uni-Solve you can use any kind of oil that will act as a mess but effective adhesive release agent. I've use various kind of cooking oil--Olive oil, Wesson oil, mineral oil (baby oil works but I don't use it because they perfume it and it stinks) I even resorted to a pat of butter stolen at dinner by a breeder and I who were trying to repost a puppy.

The trick with oils is to have a small container of it and keep dipping your fingers in it and rubbing them along the edges of the tape--as the edges loosen you can start using q-tips to get further under the tape but I just keep goopin more oil onto the tape and freeing it as it loosens.

If you are using oil of any kind you do need to make sure you have all the oil off before you repost or the new tape won't stick. I use a cup of water with a few drops of the old regular Dawn detergent--it's an excellent degreaser and not toxic--they use it to degrease waterfowl who have been oil soaked in an oil spill.

And the best news of all is that when you finish posting ears, all that hair than came out will grow back--it always does.

dobebug--now I have no excuse not to go mow some lawns.

so I was cleaning his ears and one of his ears seems to be a little raw there was some blood so I think I’m gonna let his ears chill out until that heals. He’s still really young so I feel like I should be okay I just don’t wanna make it worse. Has anyone ever done the zip tie method ?

 

[4x4bike ped]

so I was cleaning his ears and one of his ears seems to be a little raw there was some blood so I think I’m gonna let his ears chill out until that heals. He’s still really young so I feel like I should be okay I just don’t wanna make it worse. Has anyone ever done the zip tie method ?

Hi Brittni,

Yeah... You have plenty of time. If you would like, you can apply a drop or two of an ear specific ointment, on a bit of cotton, attached to end of the post to help prevent infection. I like Otomax. It is available by vet prescription.

And yes, there are folks here who use the zip tie method. Quite successfully, in fact. However, if you are having no issues other than the minor ones you described, I personally would not be inclined to switch post materials. Backer rod makes as good a post as anything else. And even better than most other materials.

John L
Portland OR

 

[RedGirlBrynn]

I took his post out before work and can repost them around lunch time. He wasn't doing much scratching or head shaking until yesterday and this morning but thats when I checked and saw all the gunk so then I thought maybe that was the reason? I feel like I had the post all the way down and I stretched his ears as much as possible. I did not angle them into his ear just out them straight down, do I need to angle them at all? I did not use unisolve but I just ordered some so I will make sure to use that next time! and then as far as the brace thank you for that advice! I will do that lower

We also powdered with Gold Bond Medicated, it seemed to help not pulling our Brynns hair out

 

[Brittni6612]

Hi Brittni,

Yeah... You have plenty of time. If you would like, you can apply a drop or two of an ear specific ointment, on a bit of cotton, attached to end of the post to help prevent infection. I like Otomax. It is available by vet prescription.

And yes, there are folks here who use the zip tie method. Quite successfully, in fact. However, if you are having no issues other than the minor ones you described, I personally would not be inclined to switch post materials. Backer rod makes as good a post as anything else. And even better than most other materials.

John L
Portland OR

So far his ears are getting irritated and I’m not sure if the posts are just too big for him right now he’s nine weeks though. I really want to get the posting process started but I don’t want to irritate his ears more he had minor inflammation /irritation with some minor blood spots and lots of gunk. Even some liquid gunk goin on. I just so happened to have a vet appointment for him and had them check his ears today and they said it doesn’t look like it’s infected just irritated. I’m willing to switch to the zip time method if it’s more comfortable for him but so far the backer rod method is just okay for him

 

[dobebug]

What size backing rod are you using? People often try to use backer rod that is too big. If you are using 1/2 " pick up a package of 3/8"--and use that instead.

Several of our regular posters use one of the several zip tie methods. I do a lot of posting for people who are just learning to post and if who ever started them posting used zip ties instead of backer rod I'll show them the how to do the zip tie method .

There is a particular type of crop that does better with zip ties than with backer rod. And that's mostly because the way the very base is cropped it leaves a pretty small opening--much easier to do zip ties than backer rod.

I sometime run into puppies who bend the living daylights out of their posts--I'll use backer rod stiffened with one or more zip ties.

My least favorite posting material is using tampons--when crops were generally shorter tampons worked fine--but that's because we were actually using the tampon and not the cardboard sleeve--and that's why I don't like posting with the cardboard sleeve--it's too rigid and if they bang the post into anything it hurts.

One of the nice things about posting is that if something goes awry on one posting--you can let it heal, stop posting for a few days if it's sore and cure what ever went wrong the next time you post.

Carry on--it'll all be fine eventually.

dobebug

 

[Brittni6612]

What size backing rod are you using? People often try to use backer rod that is too big. If you are using 1/2 " pick up a package of 3/8"--and use that instead.

Several of our regular posters use one of the several zip tie methods. I do a lot of posting for people who are just learning to post and if who ever started them posting used zip ties instead of backer rod I'll show them the how to do the zip tie method .

There is a particular type of crop that does better with zip ties than with backer rod. And that's mostly because the way the very base is cropped it leaves a pretty small opening--much easier to do zip ties than backer rod.

I sometime run into puppies who bend the living daylights out of their posts--I'll use backer rod stiffened with one or more zip ties.

My least favorite posting material is using tampons--when crops were generally shorter tampons worked fine--but that's because we were actually using the tampon and not the cardboard sleeve--and that's why I don't like posting with the cardboard sleeve--it's too rigid and if they bang the post into anything it hurts.

One of the nice things about posting is that if something goes awry on one posting--you can let it heal, stop posting for a few days if it's sore and cure what ever went wrong the next time you post.

Carry on--it'll all be fine eventually.

dobebug

I’m using the 3/8ths with 2 zip ties I’ll take a picture of his ears unposted and maybe you could give a recommendation off that. I might try the backer rod one more time and if bad luck then I will switch over to zip ties. I just feel his ear keeps getting to hot inside and not enough air flow

 

[dobebug]

I’m using the 3/8ths with 2 zip ties I’ll take a picture of his ears unposted and maybe you could give a recommendation off that. I might try the backer rod one more time and if bad luck then I will switch over to zip ties. I just feel his ear keeps getting to hot inside and not enough air flow

You might try either making up a post using only 1 zip tie or going with 1 zip tie in a heavier duty type. Also you can taper the 3/8th a the base a little with scissors so it is more tapered than blunt.

I never found that there was a problem with the ears getting too hot when posted. And I've never really worried about air flow--if there are no irritations nor scabby spots that you are posting over neither of those things should constitute majo issues. You generally wouldn't be leaving ears posted all that long. Ears radiate heat on the back side as well as the inside.

dobebug

 

[Brittni6612]

You might try either making up a post using only 1 zip tie or going with 1 zip tie in a heavier duty type. Also you can taper the 3/8th a the base a little with scissors so it is more tapered than blunt.

I never found that there was a problem with the ears getting too hot when posted. And I've never really worried about air flow--if there are no irritations nor scabby spots that you are posting over neither of those things should constitute majo issues. You generally wouldn't be leaving ears posted all that long. Ears radiate heat on the back side as well as the inside.

dobebug

I am gonna try one zip tie and then taper the bottom. I might try changing the post every 2 days for a few then up it to every 3 days. When I looked into his ears the right ear was more gunky and like a liquid instead of ear wax. There was ear wax in there but it was just consisted of more liquid. I did have the vet check it out and they said it didn't look infected just irritated so maybe that's just how his right ear is. Is it normal for their ears to get really dirty like that when posting?

 

[dobebug]

I am gonna try one zip tie and then taper the bottom. I might try changing the post every 2 days for a few then up it to every 3 days. When I looked into his ears the right ear was more gunky and like a liquid instead of ear wax. There was ear wax in there but it was just consisted of more liquid. I did have the vet check it out and they said it didn't look infected just irritated so maybe that's just how his right ear is. Is it normal for their ears to get really dirty like that when posting?

Some do and some don't. I think all of them tend to have more ear wax and if you see a lot of liquid in the ear--keep a close eye on it--sometimes that is the beginning of an infection--but sometimes it means nothing. So just keep an eye on it and make sure you clean the ear out well, every time you repost. I'd also probably spriing for a bottle of prescription ear cleaner from your vet if they think they only seeing a mild irritation--it's worth the price of a prescription cleaner to make sure they are getting clean without using stuff like alcohol to use when cleaning.

dobebug