Is anesthesia safe for my senior dog's ear surgery and recovery?

Your dog will only have to go under anesthesia if the veterinarian decides to fix the othematoma surgically by opening it , draining it and reattaching the skin to the cartilage. the danger of a conventionally treated othematoma with draining, instilling steroids and hoping it goes away, is that the ear may become crippled, and/or (often) the it will refill with blood and may need to be drained several times. It is very important to find the underlying cause of the hematoma, such as an ear mite or other ear infection and also treat that. Your vet should discuss all options with you. Anesthesia nowadays is very safe.

Unfortunately, this type of surgery would not be conducive to a local anesthetic only. The ear is very thin....basically 2 thin layers of skin with a layer of cartilage in between and many small blood vessels. Partial removal of the ear can be painful, bloody and is a delicate procedure. I am sure that your veterinarian will adjust the anesthetic protocol to suit her age and additional risks that come with age.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. If it is possible, I would recommend having the x-rays done without sedation and depending on how the x-rays look and how her blood work looks, consider removal of the mass under anesthesia. She is not too old for anesthesia but the risk of anesthetic complications rises with age. As long as her heart, lungs and blood work are normal, she should be fine under anesthesia. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Surgery is the "gold standard" for addressing aural hematomas. Draining it with a needle and syringe may provide a quick fix, but more often than not the ear refills with blood. Allowing it to resolve without treatment may take weeks and could lead to a deformed ear flap. Surgery can be done to clean out the clotted blood and stop the bleeding. A specific suture pattern is used to keep the ear flap from refilling and in shape. The underlying cause, usually ear infection, should be addressed as well to prevent excessive head shaking.

The answer to your questions depend on the health status of the dog and the procedure needed to be done. If the dog is in a good health status, either anesthetic can be fine, even for senior dogs. Only your vet can make the risk assessment for anesthesia.

Hello, I am sorry to hear about Sprocket. Hematomas form secondary to trauma to the blood vessels in the ear - sometimes due to head shaking secondary to ear infections, or rough play. Hematomas are quite uncomfortable due to the swelling present and if untreated can progress. If this is the first time Sprocket has had a hematoma, your veterinarian may be able to treat it more basically, without a full surgical procedure. They may be able to drain the hematoma under sedation. I would recommend having Sprocket seen by your veterinarian so that they can examine the ear and discuss possible treatment options. Hope this helps, good luck!

Your veterinarian will have the best information about the safety of anesthesia given her condition. I would ask them how much the heart condition will increase the risk of anesthesia and what is the expected benefit of the surgery given the stage of the cancer? If the cancer is stage 4, then the prognosis may be very bad (makes the surgery less necessary); compared with a stage 1 (where it would be very beneficial to remove the tumors, before they spread). It comes down to ensuring that you are well-informed of the risks and expected benefits. Without knowing all of the details it's really difficult for me to say. Generally, heart conditions tend to not be that scary under anesthesia and may actually reduce the stress on the heart during anesthesia. I've anesthetized many heart patients and have found that the anesthesia tends to go very smoothly. However, we do tend to use select drugs and have an increased alertness to the activity of the heart when we anesthetize them. Sorry to see that Chica is having these problems. I'm sure this has been very difficult for you. I hope I was able to help answer your questions.