# Nubian ears folded at the tips



## deppo113 (Mar 21, 2012)

I just had a beautiful spotted nubian doeling born yesterday. She is perfect...almost.... The last inch at the tip of her ears are folded up . They are completely crimped up and even if you pull them down, they wont straighten all the way out because there isn't enough skin there to let them straighten out. Is this fixable? I know you can tape/spint ears folded at the base, but what about at the tip? Also, is this a disqualification or a genetic traight. Looks to me like it was positioning from day one iside momma....


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

I would use the tape and cardboard method. That should fix it. As to the cause, I am not positive, but I believe genetics has some play in it.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

It's not a cardboard fix, it's a genetic fault and I would seriously doubt her purebred paperwork status. We never saw this gene until Boers hit the states, it is common in them. Nubian ear faults are folded ears lengthwise or attached wrong on the head, or to thick or to short. I would love to hear about your ancestory on her.

If you scalpel open the skin to let the ear lay flat you have to keep the blood vessels intact, honestly talking with a friend leeches would work excellent! Or these crazy ants we saw that they put pinchers on one side of the cut and on the other than broke it's body off....you have to do something to stimulate the tissue or the tip will just shrivel and die off. Vicki


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## deppo113 (Mar 21, 2012)

yeah... i have also seen it in boers but never in a nubian, thats why i was suprised when she was born.....had triplets last year and twins this year. I bought this doe when she was 3 years old. Paid a lot for her and had high expectations and I know my buck is not the problem.....Now i have to agree with you vicki on questioning her purebred status. i'll post her ancestery tomorrow


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## KJFarm (Oct 26, 2007)

When we raised Boers, we had many of those ears. Instead of letting them stay that way, we would slowly and carefully tear the tissue apart, so that the ear would lay flat. Yes, it's painful!!! It really didn't bleed that much and we just kept it covered with an antibiotic spray, no bandage. Where it was attached, there would never be any hair growth, but it still looked better than folded ears. I had my first Nubian kids born with ears like that, last year. Didn't keep the kids and eliminated the genetics that it came from.


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## Trysta (Apr 5, 2011)

I am certainly no expert: I own one single Boer doeling. Her ears were completely folded over at the tip when she was a baby, the fold was so tight, it looked like someone had ironed it in. Didn't do anything about it and it completely disappeared all by itself.


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## deppo113 (Mar 21, 2012)

They are already laying out on their own a little after only a day. I'm torn between letting them go or slowly cutting the skin to correct it. Like you said, if I cut, then there will be no hair. If I let them go and they correct themselves, then there will be hair. If i let them go and they don't correct themselves, then she will have silly looking flipped ears....What to do...what to do.....


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## Trysta (Apr 5, 2011)

Leave it alone and watch what happens. very likely she will be fine, no need to put the poor thing through 'surgery'.


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