My dog has recurring ear hematomas. Should I use massage or heat?

These can be so frustrating for pet parents and veterinarians alike. Eventually it will resolve and scar down on its own leaving the ear looking more crumpled than the other one. The only problem with this is that sometimes this can take weeks and the ear is sometimes uncomfortable. If you monitor just make sure the ear is not bothering her and you can talk to your family vet about having some pain meds on hand to use as needed. Did your family vet try placing an indwelling drain that can be drained at home until it scars down? A veterinary dermatologist is likely to be able to provide the best technique for this as they deal with these a lot. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

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.

Ear hematoma occurs due to an ear infection, your dog is probably quite prone to this type of infection. when such an infection occurs some dogs shake their head violently which causes the ear hematoma. There is a medical treatment for ear hematoma (steroids for 1 months), in my experience it is as successful as the surgery.

I'm sorry that Remy had a hematoma in his ear! Unfortunately, there is really nothing you can do at home to treat this problem - it will eventually go away on its own, but this can take several weeks in some cases and may cause some scarring or disfigurement of the ear. I do not recommend attempting to drain it at home, as this often introduces infection and makes the problem worse. Your vet can surgically repair the hematoma, or may prescribe a steroid or other medication to help it heal faster if you opt not to do surgery - so it would be a good idea to take Remy Martin in for an exam if you are able to. In many cases, affected dogs also have an ear infection or other underlying problem that needs to be diagnosed and treated as well.

It's possible that it will go away on its own in the next 2-4 weeks, but there will be some scar tissue that builds-up under the skin - maybe like the other ear appears. It's also possible that it will grow to fill the whole ear, or get infected. If it grows and/or is not going down in the next 2-4 weeks, then it's best to take Opal back to the vet. The vet will be able to drain it and can do a different procedure to keep it from swelling back up again (these often swell back up after they are drained). The steroid injections only work in about 70% of the cases and unfortunately it didn't work for Opal. There is really not much you can do for this at home that is very effective. You can try applying ice to the ear for 15 minutes 2-3 times daily and can also attempt to bandage it, so it's not continually being shaken. Below is a link to a good video that shows how to bandage the ear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FQ0JopKfY0 I hope that helps and Opal gets better soon.

In my experience, ear hematomas treated with prednisone mostly resolve on their own within a week or two. Applying compresses is probably not necessary, but you could apply a cool compress to make Turley more comfortable. Just be sure that you don't accidentally make the compress too cold and don't get water in his ears. If Turley resists the compress then do not apply it as it is likely unnecessary. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach and I hope the issue resolves quickly for Turley.

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.