Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice or experience that could help me?

We have a 9 week old gundog puppy. I know I am not allowed to say the breed, but the breed standard describes the ears as 'not large or heavy, hanging close to the head and rather far back.' They should fall fairly flat without curling  outwards etc.

We bought our puppy to show and our lovely breeder chose her for us with that ain mind. When we picked her up her ears were even and hanging normally. However; over the past few days the left one has started to curl outwards. It is now very pronounced. It feels fairly normal, maybe a little thicker, no heat in it or anything. I haven't been able to get hold of our breeder, we keep missing each other. I am really hoping it is something she will grow out of, maybe caused by her ear growing at different rates.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is there anything I csn do

Thanks very much for your help.

(sorry, my phone is playing up!)

As you're not the breeder with a litter of puppies to sell there's no problem in naming the breed. :-) If you tell us the breed someone might recognise the problem and be able to help.

Ooops! She's a Labrador and very much not for sale! ;)

I spoke to the breeder and she said she hadn't ever heard of it before, but would ask some of her peers and her vet on monday.

Thanks in advance.

Ooops! She's a Labrador and very much not for sale! ;)

I spoke to the breeder and she said she hadn't ever heard of it before, but would ask some of her peers and her vet on monday.

Thanks in advance.

I glue ears that move personally, perhaps weight it or use fabric glue to stick the ear to the side of the face?

It could be because of teething where the cartelidge is setting, I have heard?

We use blu tack to weight rough collies ears if they fly when teething...

Might she have knocked it?  It could be an aural haematoma.  These most commonly occur after excessive head shaking or scratching associated with ear irritation but they can happen as a result of a knock or bite.  Small haematomas would rarely need medical intervention and the swelling (or thickening) slowly reduces. 

A vet check might be a good idea and how about emailing a picture to the breeder for advice, or for him/her to circulate to other knowledgable people for their views.

Thanks for the replies.

I sent my breeder a picture and she kindly called on some friends who weren't sure but thought maybe she'd received a bite or sting to it in the garden. She also called her vet this morning who said they wouldn't like to comment without seeing it in the flesh but get our vet to have a look.

I'd already booked an appointment for this afternoon. So I have everything crossed it is not serious, nor permanent.

I'll update later.

"I glue ears that move personally, perhaps weight it or use fabric glue to stick the ear to the side of the face?"

You ARE joking, right? That has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!

As only one ear is affected I would think it was due to trauma or a bite, ears altered by teething usually happens on both sides.

Let us know what the vet says.

Hi,

Well the vet was at a bit of a loss too.

She found two tiny lumps, the size of pin heads, about a cm above the kinky curly bit. The skin is also thicket. She said the lumps felt like scar tissue. She asked the other vet to have a look too. She didn't have conclusive answers either. 

They had two suggestions. Either that she had a tiny nick as a little puppy from rough and tumble with siblings which caused a tiny scar which obviously isn't as elastic ad the rest of the ear as it is growing and so is causing the skin to curl as it can't stretch. There is no marking on the skin of the ear. Nor any redness etc

The other suggestion was that she had been stung or somehow caught it on her crate and it had caused an inflamation and swelling that has no where to go, hence the curling.

She said it wad best to employ a wait and see approach. She is due her 2nd vaccination on Monday so she'd like to see if there is any change between now and then, but to come back if it changes for the worse-becomes sore, red etc.

So its a waiting game.:( on the plus side it isn't hurting her or bothering het in the slightest.

Thanks for all the advice

Thanks for the update