Split ears on a Lurcher??

[danny66]

I have adopted a Lurcher Cross and she has a little cut on each ear which does not seem to be healing.

The dogs home i adopted her from said she was housed in the kennel with her brother (i know this is true as i have seen them together in the kennel) and her brother had nipped her in a fight. Another member of staff at the same dogs home told me that this type of cut is a common in the Lurcher and they always get splits on there ears!!

Has anyone else heard (excuse the pun) of the same sort of ear problem??  

[mrs.pudding]

I have had three lurchers now and never had this problem.  They do, however, have very thin skin which is easily torn - brambles, barbed wire, etc - and being so tightly stretched as well, it can take ages to heal properly (if you see what I mean)

[Kilala]

I used to work in a rescue home years ago and remember something about the ears getting clipped for identification, either as a good/bad runnibg/chaser etc, especially on gypsy sites.The little slits were quite neat small 'v's. Any good?

[danny66]

After looking at the cuts for some time they do not look like little "V" cuts, They are rough and look like the skin is torn. After talking to the dogs home again they said that she has had an ear infection in the past and as her ears have been hurting her she had been shakeing her head alot and this is the cause of the splits!!

I dont think this would happen as i have known dogs shake there heads when there ears are itching or something like that but have never seen there ears split as a result of head shaking!!

Anyone got any ideas??

[natalie_1982]

I don't know anything about lurchers, but the dog's home don't seem to be very confident about what they are saying.  Surely if they have been caring for dogs for a long time they should know?

How about getting a vet's opinion as I personally wouldn't trust the opinion of the kennel's from what you have said it doesn't seem very reliable.

[woofgang]

I think that a vet's opinion is a very good idea, but would add that I have had only one experience of ear leather edge damage as a result of a bad ear and headshaking. It wasn't split, but very slightly ragged and crusty along the edge. It didn't heal right away after the ear was sorted so we rubbed a very little oil on every day to keep the crusts and skin soft and then it healed quite quickly