Ear Hematoma

[LaRe]

Hi, our Golden Retriever Jake was to the vet on Friday because he has what they call an ear hematoma. A blood vessel burst in his ear and caused a lump of blood fluid to fill inside the ear. They said it is usually caused by an ear infection and the dog keeps shaking their head and scratching their ear and it breaks the blood vessel. However, they checked his ears and he had no ear infection. We do however, have a beagle, Noodles, that Jake plays with alot and they do alot of wrestling. We think Noodles may have pawed his ear to hard when playing. Anyway......... The vet said the only way they can fix it is surgery. They will drain the fluid and put little tiny sutures in all over the ear to make scar tissue and stop the bleeding. They said if they just drained it, then it would just fill up again. Has anyone ever gone through this? I'm nervous because Jake is almost 12 years old and has never been under anesthesia........

 

[Sweet72947]

My grandmother's friends in FL have an older dog who had a hematoma on her toe which kept bleeding. She underwent surgery for it and came out fine. I'm sure your dog will be ok.

 

[ledoc]

Having the op will have the best cosmetic outcome. If you leave it, it will act like normal scar tissue - the blood will eventually clot and then start forming a scab by contracting. This leads to a shrivelled up ear. Potential side effects include infection of the mass of blood leading to abcess formation (in which case it will need to be drained anyway) and possibly long term ear canal problems and head shaking (the ear remains heavier and irritates the dog)

Hope that helps

Ledoc

 

[Buddy'sParents]

Yes, Buddy just had that done a few short weeks ago.

He was fine afterwards. He had the cone and everything and it didn't stop him or slow him down one bit.

The thing with the hematoma is that it can grow to be really really big and then it can be dangerous. Better to get it taken care of right away.

Good luck!

 

[LaRe]

Well, we had the surgery. Jake is doing good. He doesn't really care for the E-Collar, but everytime we try to give him a break from it, he starts trying to rub his ear on the ground. Therefore, he will be stuck with the collar until it heals. He looks so sad with it on.

His ear looked awful after the surgery, but we clean it out twice a day and he's coming along...

 

[Barb04]

My CJ had the same surgery and it went very well. She never had another problem with the ear.

 

[hbwright]

I'm glad he made it through fine. I wish I had seen this earlier. My Summer had this done a few years ago when she was about 10. She did fine through the procedure and healed nicely. Her ear still droops since the procedure but I think it adds character. You can feel a difference in the hardness of the ear also I think from scar tissue.

 

[bubbatd]

Glad you took care of it ! I've been through that twice . With my golden they just drained and sutured .... and there was a hard lump . With my grand Lab Yogi ..they drained and then stitched a plastic patch over it . Ear went back to normal .

 

[LaRe]

Well, the ear is doing good. It's healing nicely with no redness. However, Jake is being a handful. He's normally an outside dog who only likes to come in when it's cold, or too hot. He's been cooped up in our house since Tuesday because they don't want him outside unless its to go to the bathroom and he's going nuts!!! He already broke one e-collar because he wants out and when you don't let him out he lays on his bed and just rolls his head around making a low "grumping" sound. He won't stop... My husband called me at work yesterday and said he broke his collar so we had to go back to the vets to get another one. He's doing the same with the new one...

At least today he goes to the vet to get the bandages removed, then we'll have to go back next week to have the sutures removed. Hopefully, they'll let him remove the e-collar and go outside a bit or he's going to go mental :yikes:

 

[bubbatd]

Poor baby !!

 

[Buddy'sParents]

OK... we had to "keep Buddy quiet for 3 weeks" which is a death wish on this whole family. Impossible. That very day, after the drugs had worn out, he was up and ready to go. I felt like calling the vet and asking them just how easy they thought it was to keep an almost two year old dog "quiet".

We broke the rules a lot and let him play as much as we could so- albeit safely. He damaged the heck out of his e-collar, but that's because he wouldn't let it stop him one bit, lol. The day before he got he sutures out we even took the e-collar off and let him romp for real, lol.

So, I say it's okay to slightly break the rules as long as you're careful. Buddy was really good about not scratching AT ALL, which was such a relief.

Good luck!

 

[LaRe]

Well, twice now, he somehow got his ear out of the bandage under the e-collar. I had to go to my mothers both times and have her help me re-wrap it because he just couldn't sit still.

He's such an angel, I feel so sorry for him. We have until Friday then he gets his stitches out and the e-collar can come off

Here are some cute pictures of him with it on. Please excuse the black electrical tape. He learned how to pull the velcro apart with his paw so now everytime we clean it or he eats, we have to use two strands of black tape to go accross the velcro to keep it on.

 

[bubbatd]

Poor baby !!