[JayRPL]

So I’ve had trouble posting my 5 and a half month old boy for a while now. I finally got some success with posting the last 2/3 weeks using a combination of zip ties inside the backer rod and skin-tac wipes (I’m in the UK so can’t get Torbot but this is the same company)
However today I took off the posts and the right ear post was seeming with puss, mainly in the top-middle area. I think it’s infected as there is an odor and a greenish discharge.
Now I’m at a loss of what to do. Do I post still and avoid the areas with sores or do I just immediately stop posting until the ears clear up?
It’s frustrating as I was already behind on the posting as he kept getting them out and this will probably set me back weeks and months.

some of the red marks are where he’s clawed at the posts to get them off and some are sores I believe.
Pictures attached

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[JayRPL]

Thanks for all the help guys. They were smelling quite a bit and definitely not worth further damaging the ear. I left them out for a few days and the ear has stopped smelling and the sores have cleared up.

I'd let the spots that are raw completely heal before I tried reposting.

But I think one of the reason you are having so much trouble getting posts to stay in the ear when the pup is determined to get them out. You are in England? The puppy was cropped somewhere in Europe? I've found that pups that were not cropped in either Canada, North or South America tend to have bases that are very differently cropped than they are here. And if you do internet searches for posting of puppies that have European crops you'll see that many of them are never posted with a full post. There is not enough left at the bottom of the ear to leave a good pocket into which a full post will seat. So most of the puppies you seen in the Euro videos about posting show them being posted with half posts (something that would usually only be done at the end of posting for puppies cropped in the Americas.

I went to look and see what the segment on half posts that is in our Puppy and Cropping forum showed and was shocked to find there were no pictures. And evidently there were several attempts to get the pictures the original source had not been able to get posted. It's probably worth reading (but pictures would help). Basically you make a half post (just like a full post but only needs to be long enough to extend from the little knob in the ear just before the ear canal would start to the tip of the ear. Make the posts the same way. Most of the places you find on the internet which show half post posting do use a skin glue (see if OsteoBond--another very common skin glue like Torbot is available) in addition to having the post back taped. You could follow the directions (new) for posting with adhesive. The Skin-tac you have might be enough but in my opinion it's not quite sticky enough to do the job. Also if you haven't been using an adhesive solvent to remove the tape and posts you should be--even the skin tac is sticky enough to be really irritating if you just try to pull the posts out. But the post doesn't go into the ear canal but sits right on top of that little knob.

About finding the right supplies in England--go to a pharmacy and ask if they can get you the kind of adhesive that is used to attach "appliances" to human skin and the solvent used to remove them. An owner I was helping in India found that the pharmacies there were able to get him the right kind of adhesive and the solvent.

Hope this may help.

dobebug

This was really helpful thank you! I’m about to repost his ears tomorrow so will go to a pharmacy and ask about it. They must be different crops because every piece of advice I’ve tried from here hasn’t got him to stop shaking and being visibly irritated by the posts. The only thing that kept it in for longer than 24 hours was the glue so it’ll be a shame if I can no longer use it.

I think I’m going to try the half-post method you showed but the post says it’s for puppies with strong ear bases. How would you know if his bases are strong enough? That they are standing up with the posts in most of the time?

 

[JayRPL]

So here are the ears half-posted. Not sure if they’re meant to be that low when relaxed haha.
There’s a picture attached when he’s alert too. Are they okay like this? Not much info out there about half-posts.