# Cropping and Docking



## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Have you found that your vet will not do either the tail or the ears? What is the average cost for the operation for each? Several local vets will not touch the ear topic for any money!!!!!!!! ](*,)


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## kristin tresidder (Oct 23, 2008)

we go to northern VA for ears, and pay ~$300 per crop. most people that i know that do tails, do the tails themselves. 

it is getting harder and harder to find a vet that will crop though - there's only one that i know of in NC, and he charges $600 per crop now. nice to have a market cornered i guess!


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

I use Dr. LaBounty in Studio City, CA and he charges $200/crop (litter price) and that includes aftercare.


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## Jennifer Gossmeyer (Nov 19, 2008)

I currently go to Illinois to get ears done. Price is $200 for crop, not sure about docking. Ear correction (for floppy cropped ears) was $115.


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## Julia Norton VMD (Sep 11, 2008)

Many vets still do tails but almost no one will do ears. There is an old timer in Philly who still does them and I send people there. Also Ludwigs corner(owned by a friend) still does them. I know they do a lot of Bouvs and are reasonable. I don't know any recent grads who will do them and I doubt the procedure will be available in 10 yrs w/out traveling.I have considered learning but as a veterinarian it is highly frowned upon. We also had a lot of headaches w clients taking poor care of the ears. I don't think I would do it for pet owners but maybe for breeders where you hope they will give good post sx care. I'm not trying to diss cropping just stating that I have not met a single recent grad who would ever consider doing a crop. Since I got out in 91 I'm more old timer in my views and not as bothered by the procedure.I know in rotties there has been a lot f anger between docking and anti-docking. Most of the tailed rotties are working/import lines and the docked are amer show lines.


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## Becky Shilling (Jul 11, 2006)

Then you've got people doing this kind of crap, which is ultimately going to outlaw ALL "body modifications" across the board. This actually in Russia I believe, but I'm sure there are idiots hard at work buying and or tatting Sphynx cats as we speak.


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## Erica Boling (Jun 17, 2008)

When I was still posting my Dobe's ears and had to go out of town, I wanted an emergency backup incase the ears needed to be re-posted. I did the posting on my own, but my husband didn't feel comfortable doing it without me. I had a lot of problems just finding a vet who would be willing to even post the ears for us. It's worth it to travel to a good vet who will do it. I've used Patty Edwards in the past...

http://www.rivercliffvet.com/site/view/57303_EarCropping.pml

Pat is in Georgia, I believe a bit far from you?

I also believe that Sophia Koster in New Jersey does ear cropping. 

http://www.millstonepetdoc.com/site/view/103747_Home.pml

She's never done my dogs, but I have seen some Dobes with nice ears that were done by her. Dobermans are not the only breeds that Patty and Sophia crop.


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Julia Norton VMD said:


> Many vets still do tails but almost no one will do ears. There is an old timer in Philly who still does them and I send people there. Also Ludwigs corner(owned by a friend) still does them. I know they do a lot of Bouvs and are reasonable. I don't know any recent grads who will do them and I doubt the procedure will be available in 10 yrs w/out traveling.I have considered learning but as a veterinarian it is highly frowned upon. We also had a lot of headaches w clients taking poor care of the ears. I don't think I would do it for pet owners but maybe for breeders where you hope they will give good post sx care. I'm not trying to diss cropping just stating that I have not met a single recent grad who would ever consider doing a crop. Since I got out in 91 I'm more old timer in my views and not as bothered by the procedure.I know in rotties there has been a lot f anger between docking and anti-docking. Most of the tailed rotties are working/import lines and the docked are amer show lines.


Yes, I find this to be the case with most of my classmates, plus it's kind of an art and takes a good quality client for the aftercare. We can learn declaws in out of class wet labs, but it's not taught in the curriculum. As for me personally, I would only do dewclaws and tail docks with local anesthesia ring blocks, as I asked one of our anesthesiology professors how to do it. Same with dehorning and castrating food animals. They gotta have analgesia for both, I don't care how many old timers do it otherwise. Not to mention how they are now showing it's more productive for the animal for weight gain and the like, go figure. If they don't like it, they can go elsewhere. Doesn't bother me any. :-({|=


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## Keith Jenkins (Jun 6, 2007)

As an owner of two breeds that traditionally dock and one that crops I'm well aware of the division of the dock/crop vs. anti-dock/crop. I hear one more person give me the BS line of FCI standard and country of origin I'm going to chunk. I have no problem if someone wants to leave a dog natural as I have two natural tailed and eared and one docked but don't preach to me as long as it's legal in the US as I'm sure as hell pro-choice. Not my fault that Germany got caught with their pants around their ankles when the AR people came to town and they lost the right to dock/crop. After that it was just a snowball effect for the rest of Europe.


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## kristin tresidder (Oct 23, 2008)

Keith Jenkins said:


> Germany got caught with their pants around their ankles when the AR people came to town and they lost the right to dock/crop. After that it was just a snowball effect for the rest of Europe.


and that's one of the biggest problems with anti-crop/dock legislation. it's a big ole' foot in the door for the AR people! crop/dock bans are easy to sell the the gen pop, and sadly, it's getting easier and easier to sell them to so called "dog people" too. the US will end up like australia soon if we're not careful, where the government tells us which breeds we can own, which breeds we can train in bitesports, which kinds of collars we can use in training them, (no prongs! those are abuse, and so are illegal!) of course, no cropping or docking there, and so on...


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