I still can't believe people are convinced that cutting off a part of your body doesn't hurt. WTF?! Seriously?? As I've said before, cut off a part of YOUR OWN ear and let me see you claiming it doesn't hurt at all. Did anyone read this post?
ursaminor wrote:I cropped Amber's ears when she was 11 weeks old. I do regret every bit of it, here is why: The crop was done with scissors (laser is also an option for less bleeding and quicker healing) by a licensed vet and they will not do it unless you have the second set of shots administered on your dog (normally done at 11-12 weeks of age). Her ears was taped against a cone on top of her head with the wound exposed with the plastic cone around her head that was at time pressing against the cone on her head causing discomfort. It was either that or the collar off and she would be scratching her ears due to discomfort. I was most paranoid during this time as I couldn't let her touch anything until it healed. She was regularly trying to scratch her ears only to hear her cry out because it would hurt her. She could not lay on her side until the stitches came out because it would cause discomfort. Once the cone came off the nuisance began.. The taping of the ears for the next 4 weeks to get them standing up was an absolute nightmare and it kept falling off or when I would come home the tape would be hanging from one ear. Between the crop and the numerous visits to the vet to get it taped again properly I spent around $1,000 for the procedure and follow up visits for what.. looks?
Not only you are putting a dog through an unneccessary and PAINFUL procedure, after croping you have to be careful your playful puppy doesn't rip out his stitches, which means no playing and socialising with other dogs, keeping an eye on him every second (unless he has an uncomfortable e-collar on), preventing him from scratching, keeping everything clean so it doesn't get infected, etc. And you do all of this in the most important weeks of your puppy's life. You miss out on some very important early socialising, I don't really see how that's worth it just because the dog "looks better" after (which doesn't mean he really does, natural ears are awesome and cropping can go bad if the vet doesn't know what he's doing, Ive seen many awful crop jobs).