VetBlog – The Web Magazine For Pet Owners

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Very often clients are surprised to find a swelling in their dog’s ear has come up overnight, their minds race through all kinds of scenarios and they are relieved to find on visiting the vet that it is generally turns out to be a simple condition called an aural hematoma. This is not a life threatening condition and if not treated it will merely cause your dog some minor discomfort, of course because of this discomfort you should have it attended to promptly  by your vet.
This condition happens when a dog bursts a blood vessel between the layers of skin on his ears, these vessels keep bleeding and the ear fills up with a bubble of blood, and it has most likely happened because your dog has an infection in his ear canal which made the ear itchy, then repeated scratching results in the burst blood vessel. Some hematomas can be quite small and others can involve the whole ear.

Treatment : Opinions will differ between vets but what I personally always do is this :

1. Drain the haematoma with a large syringe and a large bore needle, this can be done in the consulting room. At the last second pull back on the syringe and quickly withdraw the needle so as to create a vacuum in the by now drained ear which helps keep the ear together. Prior to this I put small amount of a drug called depomedrone into the ear flap cavity via the syringe.

2. In 50 % of cases the swelling comes right back after a day or so, my policy is to drain these ears twice and if it then came back in a short space of time I had the dogs for the day for a minor operation which usually resolves the situation.

3. It is important that the ears should be examined and checked for outer ear disease which in most likely the trigger factor. This can be treated with antibiotic ear drops.

Sorry I cannot suggest any home remedies here, there is not a lot you can do on your own so it means a trip to the vet on I am afraid.

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Scott Nimmo BVMS MRCVS