Ask the French Bulldog Experts

Where’s the ears?

patpearce February 8th, 2008

Where’s the ears?

My Frenchie is 4 months old and his ears are still not fully up in
“bat mode”. When we did get him his ears were fully flopped over, now
they stand up and the tips curl forward.

How long till his ears stand up completely?

Some have said I need to wait out his teething as they
tend to fall in this stage. Others have suggested having a vet post
them up. I would really like to know your take on this. Thank you.
Pat Writes -

Ahhhh… the ear question….. Ok the first question would be for your breeder - Are the ears in the line large or long? If so it will take a little longer for them to come up.

Most ears are up by 3 months, however I recently had a girl whose ears were FINALLY up at 6 months.. and yes I was very nervous about it…

You should make sure the ears are clean, that there are no ear infections or a lot of dirt in the ear - if there is dirt, clean the ear with water that is barely warm and perhaps a bit of dandruff shampoo…. swish it all around for a couple of minutes, then flush 2 or 3 times with barely warm water…..

Teething, a growth spurt, food changes, or an illness can affect the ears standing… when you say the tips are curled forward - do you mean just the very end? or half way down? if is it just the tippy-tips I wouldn’t worry at all - if it is halfway down, then I’d be a little more concerned..

Things to do… You can add vitamin c- a childrens chewable - and calcium to the diet. Yes in pill form..

And you can tape the ear…. use as little stuff as possble - you don’t want to weght the ear down…. the best is a bit of mole skin cut an oval about the size of the ball of your thumb (maybe a bit smaller - you are going to put it across the crease in the ear where it droops - for reinforcement), Before you put it inside the ear, be sure to clean the ear thoroughly with alcohol - and dry, then add the moleskin. THEN take a 1/2″ wide strip of tape - white surgical works well. - you will need enough to go around the base of the ear. put outer edges of the ear leather together or nearly together in an oval or circle and run the tape around the base and lap it over itself so it will stick. so the ear is standing even tho it is smaller than it will be when on it’s own.

Do be aware if you have more than one pup, the others will have the tape off in a nano-second. So you will need to separate the ear pup for at least a couple of hours at time.. If it will stay on for 3 days or so that will usually be all you have to do.. If you have to do 2 hour sessions it may take a week or more.

Now my girl with the ear, it just finally came up after a number of false starts… what a relief.. There should be no need for a vet to intervene unless there is an ear infection.