My dog's ear hardened after draining, blood clotted. Is this normal?

Yes. This is very common. Hematoma surgeries are meant to keep the incision open for the hematoma to continue to drain. Otherwise, it would fill right back up. If you can avoid the incision itself, you can use a warm wet washcloth to gently scrub and remove the dried blood. As time goes on, the drainage should improve and be less messy.

Your dog needs to wear the e-collar as pawing at the ear and shaking the head will only make it bleed more and increase the hematoma. Icing, unfortunately will not make it down. Your dog will need to be seen again by your vet. Treatment: evacuation of the blood and instillation of a steroid can often stop the bleeding , There are also surgical methods which will stop the bleeding. There is always a chance that the ear will end up shaped differently or "crippled", which is merely a cosmetic problem.

This is a very difficult condition to treat. Othematomas can occur when the dog scratches his hear a lot or shakes the head a lot (often because of a mite infection or other ear infection) or other trauma...There are several ways of treating othematoma. One is to remove the blood via syringe and to instill a corticosteroid, It is likely to fill again and will often need a second or third time emptying, Another way is to empty the hematoma and sew in a little catheter and attach a bag to collect blood and serous discharge,and hope the blood vessel stops bleeding. The third method is to fix the problem with surgery. Often the dog;s ear will cripple some, but this will not impair its function.

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.

I'm so sorry that Julia has this problem (and she is adorable BTW). Aural hematomas typically never resolve completely on their own. If left untreated (i.e. undrained) eventually the blood that's trapped between the skin and the cartilage of the ear will be reabsorbed, assuming the ear infection (which is causing the head shaking and thus the hematoma) is properly treated. However, typically this leaves a scarred ear, something called a cauliflower ear, and this can be avoided with proper treatment. First, make sure that the medication that has been prescribed is going to appropriately treat the ear infection. That means a vet needs to do a cytology (microscopic evaluation) of the debris inside the ear. Most ear infections are fungal in nature, and need antifungal treatments to completely resolve. Then talk to the vet about draining the blood inside the ear. This may resolve the problem completely, but be prepared that Julia may need surgery to reattach the cartilage to the skin and resolve the hematoma for good.

Hello there! It sounds like Roxie needs to revisit the vet before she starts another hematoma. If she's flapping her head and holding hear ear to one side, there may be an infection brewing way down in her ear where you might not be able to see it. It's very easy for dogs with floppy ears to shake and break those little blood vessels in the pinna (flap), which will cause a new hematoma quickly - sometimes in just a few hours. Dogs that have had hematomas in the past are more susceptible to them, so Roxie is definitely at risk. Even a call to the vet's office can give you some insight into what to do next, but I can almost guarantee that they'll want to take a look way down in that ear to see if she's got a new infection brewing. Good luck, and I hope that Roxie avoids another hematoma!

Hi there. I can't say for sure without being able to examine him, but what you're describing sounds like an aural hematoma - this is basically a pocket of blood in the ear flap. It's usually caused by the dog shaking his head or scratching at the ear due to an underlying ear infection or other problem, which can cause a blood vessel in the ear flap to tear. If he does have an aural hematoma, this can either be surgically drained by your veterinarian, or managed with anti-inflammatory medication and time until it eventually resolves on its own. I would recommend taking Herbie to the vet when you're able to, to confirm the diagnosis and see what your veterinarian suggests as the best course of action.