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Dogs Ears

18 17:40:20

Question
Hi Debbie,

I have a miniture poodle who was just groomed the yesterday. My groomer cleaned his ears out and they are obviously VERY sore. His left ear even moreso. My groomer usually doesn't clean the ears and I take him to the vet where he cleans them out. Yesterday was the first time the groomer did them because she now knows my dog and what to expect from him.

Before I started going to this groomer....his old groomer cleaned them out on a regular basis. He had this problem then too but ended up with a lot of little scabs in his ears a few days later. I am hoping this doesn't get that bad again.

Any clue as to why this bothers him so much and why it may be happening?

Thanks

Angie

Answer
Angie,
  It could be one of several things...
You said you usually have your vet clean his ears, is there
a specific reason for this ? It is customary for a groomer
to clean the ears as part of their service.
 It could be that your dog has very sensitive skin in his
ears and he may be having a reaction to the type of ear
cleaner your groomer uses. Ask your groomer if he plucks
the hair in the ear before using the ear cleaner.
The combination of that plus a strong cleaner maybe causing
the problem . There are several different cleaners and you
might just need to switch to a milder version.
 If your groomer doesn't have but the one type of cleaner
and is unwilling to use something different on your dog then
maybe you should ask that groomer not to clean the ears and
continue with what was working for you by having the vet do
the job.
 If your vet has been doing your dogs ears with no problems
accurring from it then you could also ask the vet how he is
cleaning them and with what so that you can tell your groomer for future refrence.
 If worse comes to worse you can ask your groomer not to clean his ears that it is being done by the vet.
 I hope that I have answered your question if you need more
information please contact me and if possible let me know
what your groomer uses to clean his ears..that might be the
whole problem to begin with.
Doreen