Groomer needs answers
 

Hello everyone!

I am a professional groomer. I don't own Yorkies (have English Cocker Spaniels and a Shih-Tzu) but I get to enjoy Yorkies almost every day grooming lots of them!

I have a customer whose Yorkie I groomed in late August. She is 2 years old, has erect ears and is done in a puppy cut. She is very well behaved and never has any issues, is always a pleasure to groom.

So imagine my shock when the owner came in today, without the dog, and told me that the dogs ears were down when she picked her up and have not gone back up since! :confused: She says she has been to the vet several times--the first time was right after the grooming, she had a co-incidental appointment right after grooming--the vet told her the first time that the dog had gotten ear mites from the shop, and that we had probably broken her ear cartilage!! :eek:

We pride ourselves on a very clean ,safe, humane shop. Our equipment is cleaned in Barbasol between every dog, dificult dogs are not manhandled (especially not tiny dogs like Yorkies!) we either work with the owner or send the dog home. And as I stated before, this dog is a very easy dog to groom, very good girl, no problems.

I have worked for vets before, and can't even imagine what it would take to break ear cartilage in one ear, let alone both!! I'm pretty P.O'd at her vet for saying such a ridiculous thing

So all this is by way of asking, does anyone know what could cause the ears to fall in a 2 year old Yorkie? Any insights are appreciated, this one's really got me stumped :idontknow

(And I'll be reading your grooming section regularly! :cheers: )

my guess is that there looking for someone to blame
im sorry i really have no ideas i have heard of there ears going down when there very sick
i would Not let this yorkie back in my shop till its healthy it may have something it could pass to other dogs

My Pixie's one ear started to droop down at 21 months so I tok some of the hair off of it, there wasn't a lot on to begin with and it went up some and then after 2 weeks it just stayed up again. She wasn't sick or anything, She is my 5th Yorkie and I have never had ones ears do that before.

If the ears have been down since late August and her vet gave her "diagnosis" placing blame on your shop, why would you just now be hearing about it???

I have no experience with this, but would a calcium deficiency perhaps do something like that? I mean that's why they don't stand as pups, so I wondered if it might be the same thing.

That is the strangest thing I have ever heard!! Something smells fishy here...Id question her vet if I were you...and ask why it took so long for her to come to you with this problem..

Dawn

That is really strange. I agree it might be a calcium deficency.

ears
 

Did you clip and trim the ears...soem groomers leave too much hair and the ears flops over, even if erect at one time?
Mites and infections can cause scratching, but rarely effects the ear in that way...they are looking for a falll guy..good luck
PS..I am a retired groomer, if it is any comfort to know you are blameless...

It is very hard to find caring, competent groomers sometimes. You sound like the kind of groomer I would want for Sawyer. I also have never heard of such a thing. Sometimes a vet is not as familiar with a certain breed as we would wish. This sounds like maybe the vet was just trying to guess without really knowing the answer. Also, if a vet told me a groomer was the reason behind damage to my yorkie, especially as serious sounding as breaking ear cartledge, I would be at her place of business the same day! If she was bringing in her yorkie to be groomed again, she knows it is not your fault.:)

First of all I would call the vet and have a talk with him about his diagnosis. I can't imagine breaking the cartilage in an er. You can bend their ears down to where they are floppy and it doesn't break the cartilage so I don't see that happening at all! I wouldn't think ear mites would do that either. The only thing I can think of is way too much hair actually weighing the ears down or like someone said - some type of deficiency.

I'm learning that from researching this, I didn't know that not trimming could cause the ears to fall! I'm trying to remember if her dogs get their ears tipped, I have quite a few customers that don't want it trimmed, they like it natural. That may very well be what is going on here.