Vet speaks out against tying your pets' ears together as 'painful' trend goes viral

A vet has spoken out against a ‘painful’ and potentially damaging trend which has gone viral again on social media. The trend sees pet owners tie their dogs’ ears up with hair bands 'into a bun'.

The '#PutItInABun' challenge originally went viral in 2019. But, it has now gone viral once again, with one particular video amassing 3.8 million views.

The hashtag has racked up a whopping 427.9 million combined views on TikTok. As well as thousands of views on other social media platforms.

Since the release of the video and re-emergence of the trend over the last month, online searches for ‘dogs with hair bands’ and ‘dogs with hair bobbles’ have both increased by 100%.

However, Dr. Anna Foreman, Everypaw Pet Insurance’s in-house vet, is urging people to avoid the trend. “Tying a dog’s ears up is very unnatural for them, and can be painful, particularly if secured with an inappropriate, thin elasticated hair tie," she said.

"Doing this can pull on the hairs and damage the delicate skin of the pinnae, the outer part of the ear. If a dog with [floppy] ears is not prone to ear infections, then tying the ears up may increase the chance of an infection due to an alteration in the ear’s already stable environment."

In light of this, Dr Anna has spoken out on the dangers of this trend, for both dogs and cats.“Cats are very prone to stress related diseases, such as cystitis and dermatitis," she explained.

"So doing things like this to them can not only upset them, but also create potentially life-threatening clinical illnesses... By exposing their ear opening, particularly for extended periods of time, these dogs are also more prone to aural foreign bodies such as grass seeds.

"Dogs with floppy heavy ears are generally prone to aural foreign bodies regardless. However tying the ears up does not help prevent these, but rather thoroughly checking the outsides of the ears after a walk.

"If a dog with these sorts of ears is not prone to ear infections, then tying the ears up may increase the chance of an infection due to an alteration in the ear’s already stable environment. "