My 16-year-old dog's ear flap is wrinkled. What does it mean?

Great question! She is just fine like this. Ear hematomas do wrinkle the ear flap. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to correct it. The best thing you can do is to make sure she doesn't get anymore hematomas by keeping her ears clean.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! This may be due to an ear hematoma for example. This could of course be something else as it is not possible to know for sure without evaluating her. I recommend you have her evaluated by a veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. They would be able to check and treat her accordingly. Good luck!

This is actually filled with blood. This is a hematoma between the skin layers in the ear flap. They develop when dogs scratch or shake their heads excessively, usually from an ear infection or some type of allergy. Generally this requires a veterinary exam and surgical drainage. They will also check Dozer's ears to see if they are infected or try to find the cause of the hematoma. He will need to wear a cone probably until the ear heals. Without treatment the ear swelling will go down but it may take a month or more and the ear will scar up and become deformed. This can be uncomfortable and there is a risk of infection so I recommend veterinary treatment soon. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Dozer.

If your dog is shaking her head and flapping her ears than she may have an ear infection or allergy. You can look in her ears to see if she has any redness, discharge or odor. If she continues to flap her ears, she is at risk of getting an ear hematoma so she should be examined by a vet to determine the cause and needed treatment.

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. This is not an emergency, I would suggest scheduling an appointment with your veterinarian to have this looked at. This will need to be drained and treated to prevent it from refilling. The technique I use is draining the ear and injecting a steroid medication into the ear flap where the swelling is. Sometimes this takes two or three times to resolve the problem. This is what we call an aural hematoma. And happens when the ear flap is hit against something hard and the blood vessels on the inside of the ear flap burst and leak blood into the ear flap filling it like a balloon. If draining the ear flap and using the steroid injection for treatment does not work after 3 times then I typically resort to a more surgical approach by placing a drain into the earflap itself. I hope this helps guide you in the right direction. Please feel free to contact me with any other additional questions you may have. I am also available for consultation if needed.

This looks like an aural hematoma which is where blood from a capillary bursts and fills up the est between the two layers are cartilage. You can purchase a "no flap ear wrap" online to help with the flapping of the ears. Most commonly this problem needs a procedure done by a vet to allow the blood to drain while the two layers of cartilage re-adhere to one another. Also there is likely an ear infection that caused the shaking of the head to begin with that will likely need to be treated. If the blood is not drained the ear flap will eventually scar down and become a "cauliflower" ear which won't cause too many problems except that it isn't very cosmetic and sometimes they can be more prone to skin infections in the crevices of the cauliflower ear so this isn't recommended. I hope this helps.

The outer ear of the dog (the pinna) is made of cartilage, and that is what helps Rolo's ears stand up. It sounds like she experienced some damage to her ears if she had a aural hematoma in them (what you referred to as blood clots), and there is the possibility that the cartilage was damaged enough that her ears will remain floppy. Over time, however, they may heal and her ears could return to standing up. Unfortunately I can't say for certain one way or another, only time will tell. Best of luck.