Saturday, November 15, 2008

Snip Snip Recovery

Duke went yesterday to have his ears cropped. Cropping is the removal of a portion of the outer flap of the ear to shorten & change the shape of the ear for either utilitarian or cosmetic purposes. Cropping alone does not give the ears the ears the erect form though. This comes with a process called taping, to train the ears as the cartilage forms to stand erect. Without this cropping & taping process the dog's ears lay floppy. Here's a picture off the Internet of a finished cropped ear. Duke should look like this soon.... not too soon I hope. He goes back to River Cliff Animal Hospital (where he had his ears clipped) Nov. 24th to have his sutures out. Then back a few days later after his ears are completely healed to start the taping process. It could take until he is 6 months old for them to stand. I'm hoping not though. We'll keep our fingers crossed. He's spending the next few days on heavy pain killers & antibiotics. Keeping him calm has been quite a challenge!

His ears aren't missing; they're taped to his head while they're healing.
He is doing so great with his training. He's sleeping on his bed next to our bed every night. He whines when he needs to go outside then he comes back inside & goes back to sleep. He's only getting me up about 2 times in a 8-10 hour night, which is great. I've been really bad & going against all my training and putting him in bed with me after Tom goes to work. He's such a great snuggler. He lays his head & neck across my neck & doesn't move. It's pretty darn cute. He was weighed yesterday. He's up to 20 lbs & 14 1/4 inches at his shoulders. He's a little monster!

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