whiskers over eyes??

I'm sure this is a silly question. My ruby nearly five months has 3 long whiskers from each side of mouth and 3 long whiskers over each eye. Now my husband thinks they are the cutest things ever and they look lovely, im just wondering is it ok to have them so long. They are approx 4 to 5 inches long each one. They don't appear to be sticking in her eyes but i wonder will they? They are about half and inch above each eye. She doesnt have long hair yet on herself. She is just starting to get a nice bit of hair. I dont intend to cut her hair at all as it grows as many of you have said that it ruins the look of them. But im just wondering about the whiskers.....and 2nd question how often do you all wash your cavaliers and would you recommend a shampoo that i could get in ireland?

Right, OK get a pair of "Safety Scissors" and snip them off!

Many years ago I had a buyer call me and tell me her dog had developed "Fly Catchers Syndrome" (Will let you search and see what this actually is! :lol Her vet had prescribed costly medicines and she was (quite rightly) worried sick!
I asked how long the dogs's "Antennae's" (As I call them!) were, she told me they were curving towards the dogs eye's! I told her to trim them level with the dogs forehead and :blabla: me in 48 hours! :lol:

When she rang she couldn't thank me enough! The dog had been jumping up and snapping at his own eyebrows! :lol: This had now ceased!!

Needless to say I had quite a few words to say :swear: to my now VERY EX-VET!!! They had wasted a load of my puppy buyers money on TOTALLY UN-NECESSARRY medication!

Are you serious is this fly catchers syndrome??? Do not all king charles have them that long? Oh my god. I thought it was a silly question. Do i cut the ones on her mouth then as well?????


Will they grow back just as long??:shock::shock::shock:

Dylan had his eyebrows cut off once for cosmetic reasons (his breeder was looking after him when I was on holiday and asked her groomer to tidy him up, we lost slippers and eyebrows )and I was not very happy about it but they never grew as long after and have never got in his way.

Hi!

Sorry if I worried you un-necessarily! Fly Catchers Syndrome is a condition where the dog will jump up and "snatch" at the air as if there is a fly there even if there is not, it is a neurological condition with many other symptoms.

Some Cavaliers with overly long "antaennea's" will jump up and snatch with their mouths into the air as they can actually see the ends of their own eye-brows!! Some vets confuse this with "Fly-Catchers syndrome" (Common sense upon examination should tell them otherwise IMHO!)

Long eye-brows DOES NOT EQUAL Fly Catcher syndrome and I apologise for any confusion caused!! :yikes this was not my intention!!

Question: Do they ever shed their whiskers and grow new ones??

When Beau was a puppy he had really long eyebrow hairs & whiskers, but as he got older those ones seemed to drop out & new shorter ones grew in their place..... or maybe he just grew into them.

If any were threatening to get into his eyes, I'd be tempted to cut them off, otherwise I must say, I'd leave them alone.

My comments are only the wisdom of one who has only had Cavaliers for about 18 months, so others here would have more experience.

sorry cathryn it was the way i took up the thread. I dont know much about the breed yet. This is our first dog.

will i cut them off then and the whiskers or is it a normal thing with cavaliers?

Hi!

If you feel the eyebrows/whiskers are heading in the direction of the eye's then yes snip them off, they will soon grow back again!! :hug:

Of mine, only Izzy had long brow whiskers, but they only needed trimming a couple of times, because after a certain length they usually moulted. Joly and teddy's side whiskers , the very tough ones, regularly fall out and i've often pricked my finger on the new 'stubble'.

thanks very much ye are all very good for replying.

Daisy's eyebrows used to seem hugely long, too, and I worried about the same thing you did -- that they would grow down and eventually touch her eyes. I've never cut them, though, and they don't seem as long now. I think they're cute because one of them is white, and one of them is brown because her mask is a little bit off center.

That is really smart to think about those "antennas" possibly making a dog seem like they have fly-catchers' syndrome! I probaby would never have thought of that!


Daisy's muzzle whiskers kind of worry me sometimes, too. I clipped one or two of them because they seemed to be growing upward and possibly getting in her field of vision. I also clipped one or two once by accident when I was trimming her "mutton chops" that she gets. Now I watch them pretty closely because they are so stiff and those two silly whiskers are now growing at an angle straight up and back toward her eyes.

I know what you mean by being pricked by the stubs -- I did that once. It was like a needle!

Mollys whiskers above the eyes are long too, but since it is our first dog, I just thought it should be so. She has never been bothered about them, and they don't touch her eyes, so I have never done anything, and I probably won't. We are not using her for show (we got the ugly baby of the lot ), so we will just let it be, unless it causes problems.

Sunshine's curled into her eye and I cut them off...they haven't yet grown out long enough to see if they will curl again but I don't mind cutting them.

i'll keep an eye on them so. At the moment they are just growing straight up like antenna's looking for food or u.f.o's or something exciting like that.