March 29 - Aged 15 weeks, Radar's ears show no sign of standing on their own.
March 29 - Aged 15 weeks, Radar's ears show no sign of standing on their own.
March 31 - So we taped them up. Note that the tie between the ears was too
short. Otherwise, everything
was fine.
April 4 - Great! The ears came up!
April 5 - Uh oh.
April 6 - So we taped that one up again.
April 9 - The ear was drooping, so we took the tape off. Under the tape it
smelled terrible. There were scabs on
both sides of the ear leather, and on the edge of the ear. The next day, to add
injury to injury, his leash caught
one of the wounds on the edge of the ear, and tore off some flesh. A few days
later, while I was cleaning the
wounds, the main scab fell out. We had thought there were scabs on both sides of
the ear, but it was really
one scab right through the ear.
So that is why you can see through Radar's ear.
We don't know what went wrong. Perhaps there was an allergic reaction to the
glue in the tape. Perhaps we
broke skin when we removed the first tape. Perhaps he reacted to the pink foam
that we bought from a craft
store to use as a splint. The message is clear: if you are going to tape your
dog's ears, check daily for signs of
pain and for odour. Also, make sure your tape breathes and is not waterproof.
Soak the tape with alcohol for
a few minutes before removing it - this will weaken the glue. Between taping
sessions, allow several days for
tiny wounds to heal.
Many, many people have taped their corgis' ear with excellent results. But
things can go wrong, so consider
whether you really need to tape those ears.