Ear Cropping dogs

[L3Outdoors]

I had a dog a month ago almost bleed to death from a tiny hole in the inside of his ear from a cut corn stalk. The hole was no more than 1/8 inch, and did not go through both sides. After this I really got to thinking about cropping the ears on the pups I have coming up. This was a first time for me, any one else had anything like this happen to them?

[aladatrot]

Ears are very vascular and do bleed profusely when damaged. Couple that too with the fact that when an ear is compromised, a dog's inclination is to shake his head - thus dislodging any clot that may have been starting to form. Krystal can vouch for a time when it seemed like we spent all day trying to control the steady drip from one of Roo's ears. Although I doubt she was about to bleed out from the experience, it was unnerving to say the least. I have had a dog get a rip right through an ear. Lupe got a third ear following the catch of our 440 boar. It bled for a while, but again not a "bleed out" situation. While ears can be bothersome when they get injured, it is necessary to look at any way the practice of cropping them could be counterproductive as relating to a hunting situation. The structure of the ear flap (also known as the ear leather) helps the dog to pinpoint sounds when he's in the woods or in the dark. Without that specially designed leather, he may have issues getting to a bay. With a naturally standing ear as exhibited on a German Shepherd, the ear leather stands, but is large enough to still be able to capture the sound waves and direct them into the ear canal where they can be processed. Traditional cropping that would be extreme enough as to eliminate most of the leather to prevent injury removes much of the material that would capture and funnel the sound waves efficiently, thereby reducing the dog's ability to hear and locate the origin of sound as well as a dog with an unaltered ear would.

Just some food for thought.
M

[L3Outdoors]

I have read on ear cropping sites that if the vet cuts the ear wrong the dog will bleed to death. Dont know how much of that is true. My dog lost enough blood that he started getting weak and going into shock. The ear swelled up the size of a grape fruit at the vet. The vet told me that another 15 to 20 minutes and I would have lost the dog. There are alot of pros and cons to it and it will be thought out before any chose is made. I wander how much it afects the hearing on floppy eared dogs. I was under the imprestion that floppy ears was to help the dog smell ground sents. Thanks for your info.

[Noah]

I've thought about this a lot.  About lost several dogs from ear wounds over the years but I realize the importance of the ear structure for hearing... However... my Ellie dog(german shepherd type ear) can hear a hog pass gas from 3 miles away... there is no flop ear dog that can compare to her hearing wise... period.  More times than I can count the dog has struck hogs by sound alone, when other finished dogs were oblivious to their presence.

So, if I start cropping ears, it will be a modest crop.  No pit ears, more of a full coyote ear.  Ugly, maybe... functional, absolutely

[got2catchem]

My best catchdog has cropped ears and the only real difference I have noticed with her is that the inside of the ear can get real dirty which can lead to yeast infections(gross). She has on occasion went to some pretty far bays due to hogs breaking before she gets there. Which tells me that her hearing is still okay. As far as cropped ears on a strike dog goes, I am not sure how that would affect them though. JMO

[L3Outdoors]

I'm talking about cropped ears on running catch dogs, and catch dogs. I think the old time boar hunters that created the Great Dane cut the ears to keep the other dogs from biting them. I dont think it was because of boars cutting them very much. JMO. It would be nice if those guys had keep records and books of why they did things that way. If anyone does have some info on the old Great Dane boar hunters send it my way.

[uglydog]

I grew up around dogs with cosmetically clipped ears, (Doberman) what a pain ! 

I have also seen Pits & Dogos with clipped ears that live on chains in the dirt and the ears were constanly more dirty that dogs with cover on their ears.

I remember working a young Dogo in the pen when a rain shower, came up, it was just a slight drizzly rain and we took cover under the trees. The dog was left tied to a tree while we waited. The poor dog kept getting rain in his ears and shaking his head so violent, he could not pay attention to anything else

Dogs with Triangle ears are born that way, and they also have hair around edges to protect from wind and rain, (such as Sheperds and malamute) and can NATURALy fold them back to avoid rain and wind.

Cropped ears have very little protection from the elements and natural occurances, such as even just cold, so I guess if you are keeping the dog in climate controlled conditions its whole life, then that is not a big problem.

I have had several with bad ear bleeds, several with ears ripped off half way up, I think it could have always been worse.

[slimpickins]

I could care less, to me it would be an unnecessary expense, but my vet refuses to do it to anything, for any ammount of money.
"Cosmetics" is what has gone wrong in so many good breeds of working dogs, in his opinion, and I am in agreement with him.

[Hogboy]

Krystal,

When you speak of breeds with pointed ears....dont forget the UKC "Ugly" breed. LOL

[uglydog]

WOJO! he is still pretty in my book!

[Circle C]

something only a mother could love.