The Great Burr debacle

Mel_Fi

Member
I decided we needed an adventure today so we drove drove a few towns away to a new hiking trail. It was fun and mostly uninhabited: The path was paved, there were woods on either side of the hiking path, parts of the path were shaded and it was a beautiful summer morning. Fiona made the most of it, plunging into the brush here and there and dashing along the path, returning to me, and taking off again. I think we probably covered 5 miles or so.. About halfway through I noticed a twig caught in her fur and I bent over to pull it out. Horror of horrors....it was a little green burr and then i noticed she was covered with them. To make a long story short......I now have a naked spaniel! There were just too many to work outof her coat. I am sure it would have taken days. It was a simpler solution to just shave her. On the bright side, we can now have more adventures with no worries about burrs and if we get a late summer heat wave, she will be as cool as possible.
 
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Oh No!! Am I correct that her hair was long? Such a bummer! I'm sorry

I used to put Jake in a lycra body suit to hike in certain places because of the burrs. And I keep a matt breaker to get them out before we get home for the other dogs. This is where having my doberman was much easier than a cocker!!
 
We took the boys to a local lake several years ago, oh man, I discovered the burrs in and around their feet in the car on the way home, I got into the back seat with Pogo and worked about half out with my fingers, the rest at home with a matt breaker. Their coats were long back then. Needless to
say we have never gone back.
 
On the bright side, we can now have more adventures with no worries about burrs and if we get a late summer heat wave, she will be as cool as possible.
Yes. At least it's the right season for short hair. I've had good luck using a slicker brush removing burs.
 
Lol.....Polly, I better check in between the pads of her feet....I nev er thought to look there. One of my strengths as a dog owner is that i m diligent about coat care, toenails , teeth, etc. I made my peace with the fact that it is easier to spend 15 to 30 minutes a week on coat care than having to spend 3 or four hours trying to get my really restless dog to stand still in order to get an overgrown coat back into shape. Her coat is always kept shorter than standard.... she is petite as English Cockers go so she looks, in my opinion, ridiculous in a long coat...and because she needs her exercise, for the summer, she is partially shaved with her furnishings kept thin and trimmed back to head off trouble as we often go swimming in the lake. I cannot imagine what a long coat would have looked like... probably a clump of burrs with legs. Her ears had so many matts that they were folded over and clumped together.....aaaaah!! The funny thing is, I almost always do grooming on Sunday mornings. However my sister was in the mood to make homemade bread so I was happy to put off doing it until later in the afternoon, when we returned. To Manuel and Jakes mommy, I am going to look into that matt breaker. It sounds like a handy thing to keep on hand.
 
Mel she looks great! I have since then shaved Pogo down, at his age, he's 14 (ish) he's much happier with an occasional brush over with the slicker instead of a comb out.. Pye is shorter also, more of a longer puppy cut. Pog's ears are completely shaved and Pye's are a little shorter, Pye has always
had a very wet mouth.. and his ears can turn into cement real quick just from his drool lol. His ears are like my siggy pix, been that way now for a long time.
 
It is important to note that this was before the burr debacle......now she naked and spindly looking....lol. Not a big deal tho....it will grow right back!
 
So Fiona kept shaking her head seemed to be her right ear I thought for sure a burr had fallen down there....they were small enough to fit. Off to the vets we went. There was something in her ear it turned out to be plug of debris and ear wax with attendant bacteria. They did both ears but the right was the one with the plug in it but an overgrowth of this bacteria was found in the left too. It is noteworthy to,say it was not yeast, but bacteria. Without hesitation, I am turning to Zims Cocker Ear solution. Anybody here have any advice....? I am going to go to the ear board posts and read it in its entirety then put future updates there.
 
I walked Farley and Ki along the rails to trails pathway in our town just to have a change of place. They were covered with burrs from head to toe. It took a long time to get them all out of both dogs. We pulled them and then I used the greyhound comb. It was an all morning affair.
 
There is a lake I used to love walking at, but no more
Bella got covered in so many burrs she literally could not walk, and her ear was stuck to her hip forcing her head sideways.
I ended up wrapping her in my coat and carrying her back to the car.
That was a lesson to us that some walks simply are not worth it.

I did find that bathing her and using at least half a bottle of conditioner helped a lot to get them out.
 
Next time your dog gets covered w/burrs, look for a horse product called Main and Tail Detangler. It's safe to use on dogs. I have sprayed that on a horse's mane that was full of burrs before loading her on a trailer for a trail ride. The mane was not pulled, so it was fairly long. By the time we got to where we were going, all of the burrs had fallen out.
 
Well I m going to be more prudent where I let her run from now on. Thank you, Dizzy, I am going to buy that Mane and Tail detangler. I am familiar with their line of products. So I have downloaded a picture of a dog's ear canal and stored it on my tablet which I will take with me on our next vet visit in 2 weeks. I want the vet to show me where the blockage was.....know about any poaaible hearing loss....in short, I have questions,. Yeah my vet thinks I am a pain in the butt, but since it is something I am paying for, I am going to get as much information as I can. I was instructed not to clean her ears before then. I noticed that her ears were not pink and did not smell at all when she started shaking her head. The goo they put in her ears is supposed to be left in there for 2 weeks undisturbed. It is also interesting to me that there were no yeast present in her ears.....this was bacterial.

So I have done lots of lots of reading and tried to be discriminating on where I got my information from. One poßible solution caught my eye: It is a homemade recipe on Zim's Cocker's website. It is not his recipe but rather a woman who was a board member of the San Diego Cocker Spaniel Society whow ca me up wits it. Zim's Cocker has bred American Cocker and uses it on all his dogs as well as taking in rescues getting them into shape aND solving their ear problems before rehoming them. It is a flush and he doesn't really use Qtips unless the dog gets lots of waxy build up....which Fiona doean't have. First I am going to have my vet have a look down there before I do anything to her ears. If I get the all clear from him then I will flush her ears once a week with this stuff and take her back for a recheck after two weeks to see if the product is effective and where I stand with regards to debris. If all goes well, I will take her back in 3 weeks for another check. Then, assuming all goes well, we will go to once a month for a recheck for 3 months. My thoughts are that I can either try to find a way to deal with this problem proactively which is a little more costly now or spend lots and lots of money in the coming years trying to combat problems once they have started. I would spare my dog repeated bouts of discomfort if I can.
 
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I think there is a forum discussion board designated for the subject for ear problems.
I noticed the discs sion forum closed..... I sent off an email. I need to know if the formula posted on his website is effective for bacteria. I hope I get a reply.
 
I think Zim closed down the forum when he found he had more activity on his FB group. Find that and join that. I'm sure he or someone else will give you the formula. I kind of remember it, it's not much different than the blue power that we all use. There is also a commercial version that is
available on Amazon, I think Karen can tell you more about that.
 
I posted about a commmercial alternative to the Blue earlier on this thread.
The Blue formula is different than what I found out the Zim Coker website. Has anyone here use either the Blue or the Zim Ear formula for a bacterial infection? They tend to use the term infection to cover both so it is not really clear. I am hoping that this developed spontaneously from her activities... like swimming and plunging through the brush (debris) and will not be a chronic problem. I am trying to get this cleared up and am going to have it monitored by the vet now and then to make sure it is cleared up.
 
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