Groom Professional Thornit Canker Powder - 20g

The Groom Professional Thornit Canker Powder is a traditional ear powder that has been used in grooming for decades, applied to the inner surface of the ear flap to help with itching, waxy build-up and smell.

Key Features

• Traditional formula: A long-established grooming powder rather than a modern veterinary preparation
• Helps with itching: Groom Professional describe it as relieving itching and discomfort in the ear
• Wax and odour: The brand say it helps break down waxy clumps and reduce smell
• Tiny amounts: A pinch on the inner surface of the ear flap, never into the canal
• Dogs, cats and small pets: Groom Professional list it for all three
• Size: 20g, which at the stated dose is a great many applications

How To Apply It

• A very small amount on the inside surface of the ear flap only -- Groom Professional are explicit that it does not go into the ear canal.
• Massage the base of the ear gently so it spreads.
• Less is more. Powder packed into an ear cakes with wax and makes things worse.
• Keep it away from the eyes, and do not let the animal breathe the dust in.

Get The Diagnosis First

This is the important part. Head shaking, scratching and a smelly ear are the symptoms of several different problems -- ear mites, a bacterial infection, a yeast overgrowth, an allergy, or a grass seed stuck down the canal -- and they need different treatments. They look much the same from the outside, and only a vet looking down the ear with a scope can tell them apart.

Ear mites in particular are properly diagnosed and properly treated by a vet, usually with a licensed spot-on, and every animal in the house needs doing because mites spread. Putting powder into an undiagnosed ear can delay the real treatment by weeks, and an animal with a ruptured eardrum or a grass seed down the canal needs intervention rather than powder.

Signs That Mean A Vet Rather Than A Powder

Go to a vet instead if you see any of this: a strong or yeasty smell, dark or yellow-green discharge, redness or swelling down the canal, pain when you touch the ear, constant head shaking or scratching, or a head held at a tilt. Those are signs of infection or of something lodged in the ear, and neither is treated by a grooming powder.

Who Makes It

Groom Professional launched in 2009 on the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland and is sold through the grooming trade supplier Christies Direct. The range was built for working salons rather than for the bathroom cupboard, which is why so much of it comes as a concentrate and in four-litre sizes. Groom Professional say the products are manufactured in the UK.

Good To Know

• Groom Professional describe this as effective against ear mites. That is the manufacturer's claim for a traditional grooming powder, not a licensed veterinary medicine, and it should not replace a vet visit.
• See a vet before using it if the ear is painful, red, swollen, discharging or smells strongly, or if the animal is holding its head to one side.
• Keep the dust away from eyes, noses and your own airways, and apply it somewhere ventilated.
• Not for use in an ear with a known or suspected perforated eardrum.
• Keep it out of reach of children and store it somewhere cool and dry.