I have a soon to be 3 mos. old pup. "Wolf" is an absolute beautiful dog, however his right ear leans toward the center of his head, similar to a lazy eye. Sometimes the ear will remain erect. Is this a condition he might outgrow?
Guy

Hi Guy, I wouldn't worry about his ears at this age. As long as weak ears isn't in the bloodlines, they should come up and stay up soon. A puppy teethes between 4 and 6 months, so sometimes the ears come down again. Chewing on raw soup bones helps!

Completely normal. It will probably go up and down as he teethes, and then eventually straighten up and stay up. You're lucky - my pup is 6-1/2 mos old, and his lazy ear never has gone up or laid on top of his head. I started gluing his once he was done teething,and today took the insert out of his ear. It's staying up at the moment, but if it starts looking the least bit "lazy" again I will have to re-glue it. His other ear did what you're describing for a couple of weeks, then straightened up and stayed upright after about 10 weeks of age.

Don't worry- he's still baby. It'll probably stay up soon if it's already going up some of the time.

What age do you start to worry?
My pup is 4 mnths old and I understand about teething. For that reason I figure the right ear has a chance. I have at least seen that one up, down and in between. The left ear seems to remain the same- down and floppy.

What does glueing involve. I heard it was easier on the dog than taping.

I started worrying a lot more when Kodee was about 5-1/2 mos old,and his right ear was still mostly flopped over, and he was done teething. I tried different methods of getting his ear up,and glueing was by far the easiest. I ordered Skin Bond online, and bought some foam plumbing insulation at the hardware store. Cut the foam to fit inside the ear, and put the glue on the back of the foam. Let it sit a minute or two til the glue is sort of tacky (not too wet), then place it inside the ear and hold it for 30-60 seconds. After that, it should stay in place on it's own. Just make sure you have the insert cut to the right size/shape, and hold it inside the ear to double check the fit before you glue, because that glue is pretty much impossible to remove (you can buy the Skin Bond remover online,too, but I didn't). It should loosen up and fall out on it's own in about 2 weeks. I usually just gently pull it out once it's sort of loosened up, b/c it drives me crazy to see it loose in his ear.

I've kept Kodee's ear taped or glued for about a month now, and today was actually the day his foam came out of his ear (I helped it along), and his ear looks pretty good. The inner edge is sort of "soft" (flops a little when he trots), but it stays upright when he's just walking or being still,so I'm gonna just keep an eye on it for now. If it's even looks like it might be going back down, I'm re-gluing that sucker. I'll keep doing this til the ear stays up (although I think we might be done, thank goodness). We'll see over the next couple of days, I guess.

This as a footnote to my original post. I took "Wolf" to my vet who referred me to another vet who supposedly specializes in ears. He inseted a rolled up bandage inside each ear and taped them up around the insert, with a chin strap (tape) and tape on his head between each ear, to help prevent him from removing the tape. He removed the tape after one week and the weak ear is standing tall however the previously good ear is now leaning over. I'm hoping time will take care of this, as I had mentioned he is only 3 mos. old. I'm hesitant to take him back to the "specialist.
Guy

Hi Guy,

I had the same problem with my shepherd but both of his ears were down till about 4 months then came up and did that "party hat" look where they lean in to each other- then when he was teething one ear went down and I panicked but tried to remain calm till about 6 1/2 months (he had a hard time teething) when it still wasnt coming back up I went ahead and glued it with a spongy perm roller and some adhesive glue, it stayed in for about a week or so and fell out and the ear has been up ever since. I was also told that calcium supplements may help but I'm not sure if that affects anything else so I would check with someone who knows more about that but I probably wouldnt spend my money on a ear specialist just yet, give him time. Sometimes it depends on the lines of the dog- my other shepherd I swear his ears were up when I got him at 8 weeks and Ed says that he has never seen a shepherd pup that had both ears up and when one goes down never come back up, so I would just sit back and enjoy your pup right now
Take Care,
Kathy

I'm really surprised any vet would recommend taping at 3 mos old. Isn't he still teething? (It was hard, but I forced myself to wait until Kodee was done teething). My pup teethed til about 5-1/2 mos...what kind of "specialist" was he? Or was he just a regular vet who had a lot experience taping ears?

almost to the five and a half month with my boy. I do not think he is done teething but still worried about one ear. One has "moments". I wish I knew of a vet that would do the taping. Maybe I will call around. The breeder said not to worry that it is not in the line.
I hope Quincy isn't the first. He is so cute when his ear is up. It looks huge but cute.

Michelle-

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I don't know why you'd need a vet to do the taping. I taped Kodee's ear a couple of times, then switched to glue/foam, and it's actually pretty easy, as long as your dog is cooperative. Have you read Ed' s eBook? It's really helpful:

http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/tapingears.pdf

If you want to know how I did Kodee's, you can PM me if you want, (but you probably will get all you need from his eBook - that's where I learned how to do it). Good luck!

(Oops-I already posted how I glued his ear in a previous response to this post. Doh!)



Edited by Kori Bigge (02/12/2008 08:40 PM)
Edit reason: Oops added!