Hematoma in the ear

[Ilana]

I will be happy to know if anyone had a dog with Hematoma in the ear and what is the best treatment for it?

My Gray had it when he was 8 years old and the vet took the blood out a fews times but finely its stop but the ear was crumple very bad,

i know that sometime it's better to do a surgery or to give some medical treatment

[daniela]

Hi Ilana

I have also had experience with this and the vet did exactly the same thing.

I guess over her life time she had it a few times in both ears and each time it was drained off. Unfortunately, over the years, the ears became crumpled.

We had five Weimaraners at the time, and we noted that she had smaller ear canals than all the others and thus she always seemed to build up more wax. We had to keep on top of this because other wise she would start scratching her ears and then cause the hematomas.

Fortunately, all our other dogs were fine and the girl I have now doesn't appear to have any problems in that area.

[weimaranermama]

Hi Ilana,
I had two dogs with hematoma in the ear. The vet, first took the blood out of the ear with a needle, but it came back and did not work.
My experience is, wait for two weeks, that the blood can get something thicker, and do than an operation. with that operation the vet takes the blood out of the ear with little cuts. The blood is not coming back , and congelationed than. Part two of the operation is to saw a model on the outside of the ear. It's looking like patchwork, on every cm a stich.
Than you put the ear on the head of your dog and wait for three weeks, before the model can get of the ear. You will see, that the blood is not coming back and that the ear of your dog is not crumbled.
You have to take care very good that your dog is not scratch on his ear during healing.
I hope you can find a vet who can do this and wish you and your dog a lot of succes with everything.
Good luck,
Ina

[christina]

Hello Ilana,

I have not experienced an ear haematoma with my boys (touch wood), but Thomas used to have an ulcer at the tip of his ear, which would not heal for a year and we had to amputate part of his ear flap in the end....

As far as the treatment for haematomas goes, from what I have read about it, your vet seems to have done the right thing, draining the blood out. I found an interesting website on the subject - please have a read through....

www.users.bigpond.com/mrvh/info/cc_AURALH.htm

I don't know about ALL Weimaraners, but all Weims that *I* know are 'serious head shakers' - certainly my two are, Thomas in particular. He got that ulcer on his ear flap because of his constant violent head shaking. The reason it did never heal was partly because of his shaking too. I must stress that his ears are as clean as a whistle, so infection or inflammation were not to blame. He has always done it. It's a "tick"... a "Weim thing" as far as I can make out. It is not surprising that Weims get those aural haematomas, behaving like that ....

I said above that his ulcer did not heal "partly" because of the head shaking. In his case there was another reason. He was born with several genetic defects, and one of those is an abnormality of the vessels in his ear. The combination of the constant trauma from the head shaking and the abnormal vessels reduced the chances of this ulcer ever healing to zero.

The major reason why we waited so long with the decision to amputate part of the ear flap was the difficulty of bandaging the wound afterwards. We did not even know about the vessel abnormalities by that time.... Operating on an ear flap is a major problem, because of the risk of bleeding afterwards. I had to ensure that Thomas would not shake, nor rip his head bandage off --- anybody who has ever attempted to keep a dog's head still - let alone a Weimaraner's head (!) - will understand what I am on about. For 3-4 weeks I did not leave Thomas out of my sight - day and night... I even slept with his leash around my wrist - he moved to undo his bandage - I woke and re-dressed the wound.... several times per night sometimes...... it was hell ! But it worked. The wound healed beautifully, and Thomas is no worse for wear.

I am telling this story - slightly deviating from the original thread - because of something that worked to prevent the damaging effects of head shaking whilst the wound was still fresh, which might come in handy for anybody who might have to encounter a similar problem, battling to keep an ear "still".

When we could dispense with the formal head bandage and the stitches were out, it was still very important to prevent the wound from breaking open - which would undoubtedly have happened, because I could not stop Thomas's regular and violent head shaking in time. So I cut the leg off an old pair of nylons, cut a hole in the side, and I slipped the "sock" over Thomas' head, pulling the "healthy" ear through the hole on the side. This would locate the "sock" to stay put and prevent it from slipping off. The injured ear would be drawn onto the head, and when he shook his head, only the healthy ear was flapping about, keeping the force off the injured one. A pair of stockings are ideal, because they are a) not too tight to irritate the dog, and b) let the air circulate to a degree.... It worked a treat.

Sorry to deviate from the original thread, but the "sock idea" might come in useful for someone ....

Christina

[marjolein]

We usually drain and then give a steroid injection in the ear. Usually this works perfect.

[Ilana]

Thank you for all the information,

I tried with my old dog all those things( except for the steroids injection) include oparation ,but at the end,the ear was crumpled,

I am asking it because i have now a dog,7 years old that has a small hematoma that i found it 6 months ago.

and it's not so swollen,and you can see it only if you open his ear and if you touch it you can feel that it has a liquid,it's big like a 1 Euro coin...

I am deliberate if to do anything now,or to wait that it will be bigger or more swollen and than the damege for the ear will be bad,

my vet don't want to do anything for now,

my dog has a very clean ears but like to shake is ears alot when he is happy and want "say" somthing to me....

Thanks

Ilana