Aural hematoma (cross post)
Submitted by a5hley on June 19, 2012 - 12:58pmSo princesss started to develop a little quarter shaped bubble in her right ear flap Saturday a week ago. The vet & I decided to take the watch and see approach. This past Sunday it spread through her her ear flap. We went in and had it drained and injected with a steriod. The vet said that 75% of the time it comes back. I have been trying to do pressure and cold compresses but she doesn't want me to touch it =( Any suggestions on how to wind up in the 25% group.
TIA, ashley
Our cat had one
We had the surgery--they put lots of stitches in the ear so it could not re-occur (its been 5 years) and they stayed in for 3 weeks. His was too far gone to wait, but if you do need the surgery its not that bad (outside the anesthesia)
A surgery alternative
Stella had a benign tumor on the edge of her ear and we had it removed by cryosurgery. Basically, they freeze it off. Just a topical anaesthetic on the ear and they shoot it with a "gun" containing liquid nitrogen. It didn't bother her a single bit until the last 15 seconds or so, when the vet said she could probably smell it baking a bit (yuck). I also got to stay with her the whole time. The tumor fell off about three days later (double yuck) and never came back.
We called her Swiss Cheese after that. :)
Morgan has had two
Both times I gave her 10 mg of prednisone for 10 days.
Norbert had 2
hematomas in his ear and we did nothing, he was old and I wasn't going to put him under for a surgical repair. Also was advised that draining never works as the blood pools again. It dried up and healed up on its own and most people (except me) would have never noticed anything different with his ear. It can shrivel the ear flap slightly.
If he was a young show dog I may have done something different but that wasn't the case.