That was Hairy

Posted on Nov 15 in Small Dog Care, Small Dog Groomingby Jeff K.Print

Let’s see, in past articles about dog grooming I talked about anal glands, nails, teeth, fur, and matting. What’s left? Brain hair. That’s right, brain hair! You think your noggin’ feels a bit fuzzy after a hard Saturday night? Peek into the inspection porthole to your dog’s head and tell me what you see. I’m not kidding.

Lift up your dog’s ear flap and look inside. There’s a hairy sight, literally. Your dog’s ear canal is bristling with hair. On some dogs, it seems as though there is more hair growing inside the ear than on the outside. Poodles, for example, grow hair very rapidly inside their ear canals. When the groomer pulls this hair free from the ear, some of the strands are so long, you would swear they originate on the surface of the brain. Brain hair.

Of course this is not really the case. Ear hair grows from follicles on the lining of a dog’s outer ear canal. These follicles are nearly identical to the ones on the rest of the dog’s body. In general, dogs with rapid hair growth on their coat—Poodles, Bichon Frise, Shih Tzu’s, Maltese, Cocker Spaniels, etc.–tend to also grow ear hair rapidly. Dogs with relatively short bristly hair tend to grow little hair in the ear canal. For these dogs, ear hair tends to be very fine and inconsequential, which is rather odd when you think about it. (Like everyone else, I lay awake at night thinking about ear hair.)

In theory, ear hair exists to filter fine air particles before they can settle in the ear. This mechanism is a mixed blessing. While ear hair does trap crud, it does not let go of it. That means all that unclean hair becomes a breeding ground for nasty bugs, especially when you add . . . skip down to the red # sign if you are squeamish . . .especially if you add sebaceous gland oil, moisture, skin flakes, dirt, bacteria, naturally occurring yeast, and ear mites to the space underneath the hair mass in the canal. If all that were not bad enough, dogs with floppy ears, such as Cocker Spaniels, essentially have a thermally insulating, air-flow barrier in their ear canal. The term that comes to mind is “incubator.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could probably not create a more generous environment for disease than your dog’s moist, oily, hair clogged ear.

# As in all health-related issues, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Removing ear hair as it builds will prevent all of the problems associated with hair in the ear canal. The other good news is the process of hair removal is pain free for your dog, if it is done correctly. While your dog’s ear drum and the ear flap are loaded with pain receptors, the canal has almost no pain receptors. As long as you avoid pulling hair on the ear flap, you can pluck ear hair to your hearts content and your dog will not feel any pain. That does not mean he will enjoy the process: “Hey Ma, there is a good game going on through the living room window. The squirrels are playing the rabbits. Why don’t you come over here and pluck my ear hair while I watch the show? It’ll be fun.”

If sticking your fingers into your dog’s waxy ear as he squirms is not your idea of a good time, you dog’s groomer can do the job safely and thoroughly. In addition to plucking hair from each ear, your groomer will clean your dog’s ears using a special solution. Ear cleaning is another topic. I’ll let your stomach settle a bit after this discussion before we get into the special joys of cleaning ear wax. Till then . . .

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