Hi all 
Although I've had dogs all my life, "Daisy" is my first Labradoodle. She was a stray, and we were lucky enough to adopt her last fall, when the vet estimated that she was just barely a year old. Needless to say, we're completely in love and have been from about the first five minutes we spent with her. She is just the best dog in the world!
We had her spayed today, and that went well, but at the same time, I asked them to check her ears, which I was concerned about. They seemed "not right" to me, but at the same time, they didn't really look like what my other dogs' ears have looked like when they were infected; there was no noticeable redness or scaliness, but lots of black "gunk". I think I hadn't noticed it at first because of all the black hair in her ears. I've never had a dog with hair in her ears like this!
Anyway, the vet told me that this was from the poodle, and that the hair in the ears needed to be plucked from time to time to keep the ear canal clean. They did this while she was sedated and cleaned the ears out well, and now we're treating her for bacterial and yeast infections in both ears. I feel terrible for missing it, and I really don't want to let it happen again if I can help it. So I was wondering, how often do the hairs need to be plucked? Will it hurt her when this is done? Is this something the groomer has to do, or can we do it at home as part of her regular brushing/grooming regimen? Do you have any other advice/products to recommend/etc. for caring for Labradoodle ears? My apologies if these questions have been asked a thousand times - I couldn't find it and the whole idea of "plucking" a dog's ear hair is completely new to me.
And now, a bonus coat question. As I was looking through the posts here, I saw several references to puppies blowing their coats sometime before they were a year old. Daisy came to us closely shaved; she'd been a stray, and the friend who rescued her said she was so matted that the groomer just had to buzz the whole coat and let her start fresh. We've had fun watching her get shaggy over the last few months, but no matter how shaggy she got, she didn't seem to shed much at all. Then suddenly (after she finished her first heat) she started leaving chunks of hair all over the house. It's not really noticeable to look at her, but it's a pretty huge difference from the amount of shedding we'd been seeing before. Is this a seasonal thing with some Doodles? Is it just because her hair reached a certain length? Could it be hormonal and related to being in heat? I'm not worried about it, really - more just curious as to what we can expect.
Thanks so much for your patience with newbie questions!
BSCK
Although I've had dogs all my life, "Daisy" is my first Labradoodle. She was a stray, and we were lucky enough to adopt her last fall, when the vet estimated that she was just barely a year old. Needless to say, we're completely in love and have been from about the first five minutes we spent with her. She is just the best dog in the world!
We had her spayed today, and that went well, but at the same time, I asked them to check her ears, which I was concerned about. They seemed "not right" to me, but at the same time, they didn't really look like what my other dogs' ears have looked like when they were infected; there was no noticeable redness or scaliness, but lots of black "gunk". I think I hadn't noticed it at first because of all the black hair in her ears. I've never had a dog with hair in her ears like this!
Anyway, the vet told me that this was from the poodle, and that the hair in the ears needed to be plucked from time to time to keep the ear canal clean. They did this while she was sedated and cleaned the ears out well, and now we're treating her for bacterial and yeast infections in both ears. I feel terrible for missing it, and I really don't want to let it happen again if I can help it. So I was wondering, how often do the hairs need to be plucked? Will it hurt her when this is done? Is this something the groomer has to do, or can we do it at home as part of her regular brushing/grooming regimen? Do you have any other advice/products to recommend/etc. for caring for Labradoodle ears? My apologies if these questions have been asked a thousand times - I couldn't find it and the whole idea of "plucking" a dog's ear hair is completely new to me.
And now, a bonus coat question
. As I was looking through the posts here, I saw several references to puppies blowing their coats sometime before they were a year old. Daisy came to us closely shaved; she'd been a stray, and the friend who rescued her said she was so matted that the groomer just had to buzz the whole coat and let her start fresh. We've had fun watching her get shaggy over the last few months, but no matter how shaggy she got, she didn't seem to shed much at all. Then suddenly (after she finished her first heat) she started leaving chunks of hair all over the house. It's not really noticeable to look at her, but it's a pretty huge difference from the amount of shedding we'd been seeing before. Is this a seasonal thing with some Doodles? Is it just because her hair reached a certain length? Could it be hormonal and related to being in heat? I'm not worried about it, really - more just curious as to what we can expect. Thanks so much for your patience with newbie questions!
BSCK
