Ears not standing at 1 year

[Don Henry]

I have a female DS Grace that will be 1 year on Easter and her ears do not stand. She will stand both one at a time but never together. She has been feed raw since I got her at 3 mo. old. Is there anything I can do to help them stand?

[Don Henry]

Should have mentioned that her mother, father and all her litter mates ears stand.

[Maggie Fan]

Unfortunately, not at a year old. I have never seen or heard of a dog's ears stand at that age.

[Dutchringgirl]

Is she pure? If they are not standing by now, they wont.

[Don Henry]

Yes she is a pure dutch, her mother was a DS and father was a Mal, she was the only DS in the litter. She had bad allergies when I got her, they were feeding Ol'roy walmat crap and purina pc crap but I got that cleared up in 3 months myself after ditching the vets. I hope the toxic food she got as a pup does not effect her health later in life.

[johninny]

2 comments
first -- how adorable and great. standing ears or no, she is beautiful and so is the gsd pup - what a pair. I love it when one ear stands and the other just sits there. and she has a sense of humor - sitting in the patio chair. a picture of regal entitlement!!
second -- not that this has [ or has not ] anything to do with the ears [ it might !], but her diet is completely unbalanced if you described it correctly in your profile. dogs are omnivores and just meat [ good to get the organs also ] is going to result in way too much protein. balance the diet so she can have a long, healthy life. need greens, the right veggies, fruit. at least use a supplement like ''platinum performance canine cj'' so she is getting essential fatty acids, trce mins, vitamins and enzymes.
now, of course, congrats on getting her off crap and onto higher quality protein, but just that is literally over-dosing just like if you only ate muscle and organ meat 100% of the time.

there are tons of great guides to nutrition here, ranging from ''feeding, whatever, medical, new member announcements, etc, etc, etc.. if you are at all swayed by by comment and want to pursue, I have written a lot on this in recent months, so you could follow my posts from my profile and see what others said, but I am sure there is much valuable guidance hiding everywhere here.

[johninny]

one more comment on meat.
meat in the past had a lot of essential stuff tho even then a diet should be balanced with other non meats. but unless you are using free-range fowl [ cageless does not count !] and grass-fed-to-finish grazing animals, then even the meat is providing none of the essential nutrients that dogs would have gotten from meats in the past [ served by prior human generations or caught by the dogs themselves]. i.e., if chicken is not free-range, then it is totally devoid of essential fatty acids, which basically leaves calories to keep the dog going. similarly, red meats that are generally sold in the usa [ except for bison and except for certain micro-geographies ] is loaded with fat that is even more damaging to dogs than it is to us humans and is devoid of conjugated linoleic acid, which was the real draw for all of us to start eating meat in the first place. so if you are buying ''normal'' commercially available meat, even if from a decent butcher, and feeding ONLY that, then it seems to me that your dog's body would be in a true nutritional crisis. hope you use bison AND free-range fowl.

[Don Henry]

John, thank you for the complements on my pups and taking time to respond to my post.

I have to disagree with you that dogs are omnivores, our dogs share the same mitochondrial DNA as a grey wolf, well all but .02% and are the same Genus. So by saying that our dogs are omnivores your claiming that wolfs are omnivores. A wolf is a carnivore and so are our dogs.

If they were omnivores they would have flat teeth in the back to grind plant material and a longer GI tract to digest the plant material and would produce amylase in their salivary glands. Do a search "are dogs omnivores or carnivores" it will not take long to see that you have been misinformed.

I do see that you understand that not being feed a species appropriate diet like in commercial meats causes a fatty acid in-balance. The same will happen to your dog if it's not being feed a species appropriate diet.

I feed lots of wild game, for about 5 months of the year they are feed wild venison. The rest of the year some wild game, pork, beef, chicken and goat most is pastured meats.

[johninny]

I misspoke in terms perhaps, but dogs/wolves in the wild eat the stomach CONTENTS of the animals they kill, thus getting a lot of greens, etc. your dogs seriously need more than just feeding of meat. very glad to hear that the meat they get is of great, nutritionally useful quality. I hope you will consider at least supplements to fill the gap that only meat creates for them. if just one, ''platinum performance canine cj'' is the one I've seen vet school journals and WDJ recommend.
but, I urge you to research this further so that your dogs are not deprived of the variety of nutrients that will keep them as healthy as they can be. too much protein in the diet is not good for your dogs. [ if nothing else, look at it this way: humans evolved from being gatherers of berries, seeds, etc. to a much more complex diet.] The fact that today a [healthy ] diet has more variety extends our lifespans, makes us bigger and stronger, facilitates our brains better functioning, etc, etc, etc.. the same is true for dogs; but right now your dogs are not even getting the traditional broader diet that would be gotten from a dog's/wolf's own hunting and foraging. I, yes, dogs do forage. I have never met a dog that did not forage given the opportunity. my first Ds was very fond of grubs that he would sniff out and dig up. they all like to hunt for various plant material that they find useful. so, I think you need to review your facts of what a wild diet is; but also decide that if you can improve upon the wild diet so your dog remains in good health longer, then maybe that is also not a bad thing. after all, do you not want to utilize modern vet services for your dogs? of course you do; you want a better life for them.
add some nutrients and maybe the body was missing something the ears needed. but I would take those ears any day. great pack you have and they look very content!

[Don Henry]

John, I have some lucky dogs they are rarely confined they have a dog door and can come and go as they please. They have many acres of fields and forest to roam and forage on if they need any plant matter, I do see them eating grasses at times but kibble feed will do the same. I see plant matter in there poop but most of it is from eating in the yard and from the grass a leaves being stuck to the meat. So wolf scat with plant material in it is probably not consumed on purpose most of the time.

I have to say again you are misinformed about wolf's eating the stomach contents of there prey, they don't.
Read this...http://rawfed.com/myths/stomachcontents.html this is from experts on wolfs.

To much quality protein in there diet is a myth also...http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php ... otein_myth

I have spent countless hours researching raw feeding a dog there are so many myths out there, many I once believed but now I don't.

I just looked out the window and my DS has been foraging in the woods, she has a chipmunk in her mouth.

[Don Henry]

John, I am always willing to learn so I looked into the platinum performance canine cj it has some good ingredients but Carbohydrates 36% dogs don't need carbs there energy comes from proteins and fats not carbs.
and Crude Protein 15%, Crude Fat 24% crude is a nice way to crap. I have never seen crude protein or fat on any human grade foods, not to say that that they may need to be labeled crude in the highly processed foods.

[Don Henry]

As for vet services, January 2012 I took my 3.5 year old GSD that had injured his shoulder running in the field and was going in shock to bluepearl animal hospital at 6:00 pm because it was after my vets. hours. They examined Sly then called me back and told me they thought he had cancer and wanted to run $1200.00 worth of cancer tests, I refused and told them to x-ray his shoulder. They told me they had him on IV fluids and I had to leave him for the night. I called at 10:30 pm and the told me that they had him in a cage on IV fluids and was still in shock, then they called back one hour later to tell me he was going respiratory arrest and a hour later called to tell me he was going into cardiac arrest. I checked all there boxes there was no need to call me for permission to do what was need to keep him alive. The unethical bastards never did a X-ray, the last charge on the bill was dilaudid? Dilaudid really for a dog in cardiac arrest? Needles to say I picked up a dead Sly the next morning at a cost of $1300.00
Vet. services here in the US is like our health care system it is a disease management system.

[Sugars Mom]

What a horrible, heartbreaking story. I am soooo sorry for your loss, and the frustration (probably an understatement) on it not needing to go that way. My heart goes out to you.

[alspyce]

So - getting back to the ears. If the ears will stand individually at times, you can try massaging the cartilage to strengthen it. First I would be sure there is no infection/foreign bodies causing discomfort. Sometimes if the cartilage is thin this will work but not always.
On target regarding Diet (and Vets--lost respect for them long ago.)

[Don Henry]

Thank you for taking time to respond. I will try that, I do massage them when I am loving on her at times but I will start doing it in the morning and evening how often would you do it. They are thinnest where they fold. I have always had GSD's Grace is my first DS and she is a very sweet, smart girl. Do you RF and do you give your dogs any vaccinations? From here on my buddies will only get a mercury free rabies vac. nothing else. I would not do that if it wasn't a law, I am pretty sure that the first one they get will cover them the rest of there life's.

[alspyce]

Massage very firmly 2 or 3 times per day, all of the ear. May not work at a year old, but worth a shot.

Only give core vaccines here, and only Rabies because it's required. That being said - My dogs are only outside when I can watch them (kennel or yard), and we've had 2 confirmed Rabies cases in my town this week, and spring breeding season has just begun.

All raw fed here!

[Don Henry]

Thanks or the advice, I will massage them 3 times a day. Wow we seldom hear about rabies here in middle Tennessee.

[LyonsFamily]

We feed Prey Model Raw here, only muscle meat, organs, and bone-in meats. The only thing I supplement with is a soy free fish oil because we can't always get wild caught or free range and the fish oil helps keep the omega 3s in balance with the excessive amounts of omega 6s in the meat.

There's no use for carbs or plant matter in their diets and Odin is thriving on just animals. He gets an occasional carrot by accident and they come out the same color and texture as when they went in.

I'm sure you did a ton of research before deciding on a raw diet, and people may have other opinions, but you're doing fine. Wolves barely touch the stomach contents of large prey. It's eaten in small things like rabbits because it's so small it just gets in the way. Growing up, feral dogs in the neighborhood would hunt and kill all sorts of things and the stomach contents were always left shaken out across the yard. I can't imagine stomach acid tasting too great wither. There are loads of articles out there debunking the dogs eating stomach contents myths for people that may disagree. This article mentions a few books. http://rawfed.com/myths/stomachcontents.html

Don, it sounds like you're doing right by feeding what you are now, and you may just have to live with the ears not standing. I have a friend who recently went through hemotoma surgery with her 5 year old mal and she taped tampons to the inside of the ear to help them stand while healing. I'm not sure it'll help since your female is already a year and not recovering from trauma, but it's worth a mention.

[Don Henry]

Thanks, I have tried using foam to tape her ears but you know the DS they will be quick to remove it. Nice to hear about folks feeding a species appropriate diet! The way I see it is,feeding kibble is really animal abuse.
If you don't mind me asking what brand of omega 3 do you use?

[LyonsFamily]

If you don't mind me asking what brand of omega 3 do you use?

I use human grade fish oil pills. I don't like soy for my human or dog family members, so I only buy products without it. Since dog products aren't required to list all ingredients, I stick with the human stuff. It's also less expensive and I can take it myself.

A lot of human pills are preserved with a natural preservative referred to as "mixed tocopherols." Since the protein is removed, it doesn't have to be called soy, but the majority of the tocopherols are soy derived and can still cause problems.

I just buy any pills that are free of tocopherols and soy. It's hard to find them, but I have found Salmon pills at Walmart, and some mini pills at CVS and Dominick's. Right now, Odin and I are sharing a bottle of the Safeway brand mini pills. They had them at Dominick's for buy one get one free, so I stocked up since I need it for workout recovery as well.