"Lop" ear...

[ACChamness]

Here's a question! But this one has some background...

Our good friends have Corgi and Bess, whom they rescued (from being abandoned/lost in the neighborhood, but the real owner could never be located.) about a week after we got Chuck. Corgi and Bess are both older dogs, we think probably son and mom. Bess is roughly the size Chuck is as an adult, but Corgi is a "chunk", much larger and heavier than either of the other two.

So from puppyhood on, Chuck set out to prove to Corgi that he was the alpha dog... he lives up to his nickname, "Punky Chuck". They'd play and have fun for a while, but eventually it would become a test of wills, and especially if there were humans having food in the periphery! Chuck would try his best to start trouble, and Corgi would avoid conflict up to a point, but would eventually feel forced to back Chuck down. And at that point, we'd usually have to intervene, sometimes with the garden hose... we're ok with the establishment of pack order, but not with absessed injuries!

Anyhow, at some point Chuck acquired what I call a "lop" ear on the right side... I don't know whether he sustained a bite injury or what happened, but the vet thinks maybe some cartilage was damaged from chewing on ears... and he either couldn't or wouldn't hold that ear up from that point forward. So for a while he'd usually have one ear down and one ear up, which was actually hilariously cute!

However, now he usually holds both ears down, or out to the side, even though the left one is just fine. Think that's a natural desire for symmetry, or... what????? I don't get it!

Anne

[Michael Romanos]

Thanks Anne for the story.
Judging from the fact that Chuck now puts his "good" ear to sleep, both are probably the result of "lazy ears." It won't do any harm to have them taped and see what the result is. It might look cute to have one or two ears down, but to me there are few better sights in the world of dogs than a Corgi with two errect outsized ears. You can tell a lot from a Corgis ears when they are fully operable. If you want to find out about taping ears go to Ears on this site where I presented another member with some assistance.