Cleaning Poodle Ears

[sottice]

Hi, I have a Toy Poodle, and I have to take him to the vet to get the hair cleaned out of his ears every couple of months. Is there anybody that can tell me how to do it and what tool is used?

[Pam]

I have a standard poodle right now, although I have had all three sizes. My husband and I have always pulled the hair out of their ears ourselves and now we occasionally have Bella professionally groomed and the groomer does it. With the standards and my miniature I found that I could easily fit my fingers down inside the ear and ever so gently pull the hair out, taking very tiny little tufts at a time. With the toys I used a long nosed tweezer, only going as far as I could see. I have found that the dogs in time almost understand that it was for their own good, because if the hair is not removed and the inside of the ear becomes wet it can create an odor and what the vet referred to as a yeast build-up. In fact he told me that hair in a dog's ears + water = a swamp! Funny, but his description has stuck with me and makes me stay on top of it.

[sottice]

Thank you. I've been wanting to know how to do it, but was afraid to try just tweezing it out.

My little one gets so upset while being groomed, that I bought clippers and have been working on that myself. Professional groomers don't want to work with him. Today he actually sat fairly still for me for the first time ever! I'm so proud of him!!!

[Pam]

I know what you mean exactly. We started grooming our toy poodles ourselves many years ago (they're at the RB now) and after two years of just us grooming them we decided to take them to a groomer. We got a phone call within minutes of getting home that they were snapping at the groomer. I am afraid they were just too used to us! For this reason now we have been taking Bella to the groomer and doing our own touch-up grooming in between. I want her to be familiar with someone else handling her.

I would love to see pictures of your poodle and all of your other pets. I went to your website but didn't see anywhere that I could click to view photos.

[sottice]

I'm working on getting my scanner set up so I can get pictures on my computer. Maybe later today.

[aly]

I have constant struggles with poor Reece's ears. He is so prone to yeast infections The groomer usually takes out the hair and so I just use the solution to clean them . I have to clean them about 5-7 times a week, and 14 times when he has an infection. He doesn't like it much but he's a trooper. Every time I'm done cleaning his ears, we race to the kitchen to get a treat

[sottice]

I have some pictures online at photogra. I'll try to have all of them on there this week. The link is:

http://www.photogra.com/index.cfm?p=...037&PG=Yes&d=1