# plucking ear hair



## Jennet (Jan 4, 2011)

My 2 yr old schnoodle has an enormous amount of ear hair. I am used to pulling this out because I have a poodle too and I do his about once a month. I have been doing Riley's- the schnoodle- at least once a week but now I notice one ear keeps getting a lot of wax, etc. Maybe I am plucking too much. Any thoughts? also I have been using q tips which I read are a no-no so I started just wiping out with cotton balls. Thanks


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## BrownieM (Aug 30, 2010)

Is it that nasty black wax? Could he have some sort of infection? I would just use some sort of cleaning solution and maybe try to do minimal plucking - like just enough that it doesn't obstruct the canal. You could even try trimming for now. 

My poodles get slightly waxy ears when it gets close to the 4 week mark post-grooming


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## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

My BRT doesn't shed and also has hair that grows down in the ear canal. My vet says there is much debate about whether you should pull hair out or not. She told me to try and pull less.

So, I just pull every once in a while, but I use this solution and clean his ears at least twice a week, sometimes more. So far, this solution has worked awesome and he doesn't have any wax or gunk build up and no more ear infections.

Cocker Spaniel Ear Cleaner Recipe - Ear Infections

Good luck. :smile:


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i had four shih tzus, two of which always had nasty icky ears....once we started treating them once a month with a solution....and we used cotton balls, not q tips because q tips can push stuff down the ear canal especially if the ear canal is narrow....

we also had our groomer pluck their ears every six weeks and the problem was solved forever and ever...

my vet isn't against it and now we do the same with our pug whose ears were icky....course, i would like to think feeding him raw has something to do with the lessening of the brown wax.....but the shih tzus were fed kibble and cleaning and plucking their ears monthly worked for them....


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

What you all mean by "plucking" the ear hair? Do you mean trimming it with scissors? Or actual plucking, like I do to my eyebrows redface?


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Ania's Mommy said:


> What you all mean by "plucking" the ear hair? Do you mean trimming it with scissors? Or actual plucking, like I do to my eyebrows redface?


with fingers....that's how my groomer did it....and we did it...we pulled the hair out...they didn't cry and didn't bite us...not that that justifies pulling hair out of a dog's hair..

but they all had terrible infections until we started plucking the extra hair out... and then they didn't..and it even got to a point where we no longer had to treat their ears...course, we kept their hair like a military cut..if you look at my avatar, the silver dog is a shih tzu with a buzz cut....her ears were the worst...and plucking took care of the problem.


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

magicre said:


> with fingers....that's how my groomer did it....and we did it...we pulled the hair out...they didn't cry and didn't bite us...not that that justifies pulling hair out of a dog's hair..


Yeeooww!! So you really just pull out their ear hair by the roots? Why not just cut it? 

I am genuinely curious about this. I'm not trying to judge or anything. I'm just completely ignorant about grooming fluffy doggies. :tongue:


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## PalmettoPaws (Dec 30, 2009)

Some breeds like Poodles have hair that actually grows IN their ear canal. Since it's in the ear canal you can't really cut it safely. Plucking isn't exactly pleasant but I wouldn't say it really hurts them either. Just one of those necessary evils.


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## luvMyBRT (Mar 8, 2010)

Ania's Mommy said:


> Yeeooww!! So you really just pull out their ear hair by the roots? Why not just cut it?
> 
> I am genuinely curious about this. I'm not trying to judge or anything. I'm just completely ignorant about grooming fluffy doggies. :tongue:


Imagine looking down inside Ania's ears....deep down, waaaaay down inside the ear there would be hair growing. It's fairly safe to say that dogs who shed usually don't have this problem. It's dogs that don't shed that do, like Poodles, BRTs, etc.... 

When I used to pull the hair I would first put a little bit of ear powder down inside the ear so I could get a better grip. But, yes, you reach down inside the ear as far as you can with your thumb and pointer finger, grip as much hair as you can and pull it out.

Some dogs have more hair growth than others. A lot of times if you don't keep that hair pulled out the dog will be more prone to ear infections.

I have stopped pulling as much as I can, but every once in a while Duncan's ears will just be full of hair. I do know that the ear cleaning solution has helped a lot with any kind of ear infection for Duncan. I think that because I flush his ears so often with it, I can pull less. Which I like. :biggrin:


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

Holy cow! Thanks guys. I had NO idea that hair grew INSIDE the ear canal. I thought you were talking about the hair/fur on the outside next to the ear opening. Crazy!

Ya learn something new everyday!


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

since ania's mommy lives near me, i was getting ready to fend her off as she grabbed my dogs......yelling at me for being cruel -- and then saying.....where's my lamb lung...LOL

remember when you first started plucking your eyebrows? i do...and i also remember that it was a true ouch....we did it because that's what we're supposed to do ...what did my mother used to say.....? 'women suffer for beauty?'

course, then we learned about waxing and isn't that fun...to get rid of unwanted hair...

so no....plucking would hurt them...where as pulling these little angel hairs out might be irritating to them...since you're sticking your fingers into their ears....

the sound of a razor, i would think, would hurt their hearing....and they have more sensitive hearing than we do...

personally, i don't care for this practise of getting the hair out of their ear canals....but i hate those smelly ear infections....or scabbies or yeasties or whatevers that dogs get...especially the ones whose ears don't stick straight up..

cocker spaniels are especially prone because of the heaviness of their ears...so they don't get much air....when i had a cocker spaniel, we used to tie her ears up over her head to let some air in....and if we didn't diligently clean and pull the hairs.....the poor girl would cry from the pain of infection...

so i guess i'm used to it as i've always had at least one floppy eared dog...now, malia, with her stand up corgi type ears doesn't have that problem....

but good ole' dances with food does...bubba's ears were a mess when we got him..they stunk...they were gunky....eventually, we ended up getting a procedure performed where they had to put him out so they could flush his ear canals....mainly because he is one of those puppy mill pugs that has very narrow ear canals...

i still clean his ears and the groomer pulls his excess hair out....and he still gets a little brown wax even on raw...but nothing like he did before....there is no more odour....and no more yeast...and no more infections....


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I can honestly say that is sounds much worse than it really is. 
WHen our groomer plucks ears, maybe 1/5 dogs even whines. Maybe.
I used to think it sounded so cruel- and maybe it still does- but after having a Cocker Spaniel... I totally get it. 2 seconds of "ouch" is totally worth avoiding nasty ear infections that take weeks to kick.


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## lmgakg (Jan 1, 2011)

Ania's Mommy said:


> Yeeooww!! So you really just pull out their ear hair by the roots? Why not just cut it?
> 
> I am genuinely curious about this. I'm not trying to judge or anything. I'm just completely ignorant about grooming fluffy doggies. :tongue:


Cutting the hair or trying to trim can cause the hair to fall back into the canal - my Maltese gets his ear hair pulled at groomer every six weeks. If the hair falls back into the canal it can cause (and did cause in my baby) an ear infection because the ear wax just molds to it and it becomes a big ball of yuck!!!! 10 years and the one ear infection, my groomer was on vacation and I took him somewhere new and they shaved the hair!!!!!  

Honestly, my dog isn't bothered at all by it.


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## BrownieM (Aug 30, 2010)

My poodles are much more bothered by me putting them on the grooming table and brushing them out than by plucking their ears  Seriously, I gave Henry a bath and blow-dry yesterday because he was covered in MUD and you would have thought I was abusing the poor thing by the look on his face!


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

magicre said:


> since ania's mommy lives near me, i was getting ready to fend her off as she grabbed my dogs......yelling at me for being cruel -- and then saying.....where's my lamb lung...LOL


That's exactly what I was going to do!! You better start stretching 'cuz I'm a'comin! 

Thanks, everyone, for helping me understand this whole ear plucking thing. Sounds like it a small amount of pain (annoyance?) is totally worth it in order to avoid a very painful ear infection.

And for clarification, it never crossed my mind that any of you were abusing your animals in ANY way. :tongue:


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