My senior dog has an ear hematoma. Can it be treated without surgery?

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.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! There are a variety of ways to treat an ear hematoma in dogs (oral medications, draining it and instilling a medication, or a surgical "tacking", as well as determining what the underlying cause for the hematoma is). They do need to be treated by a veterinarian, as they do not typically resolve on their own, and can become very painful/infected. After treatment, the ear may be the same, or it may have a "crinkled" appearance. I would recommend your dog be evaluated by a veterinarian to determine what treatment plan would be best. Good luck!

Hello, thank you for using PetCoach. So sorry Sarge is having this issue. You are correct, the recovery from the hematoma surgery is long - like 3 to 4 weeks - and the hematoma can return. I would not consider the surgery or the post-op portion to be overly painful, just very uncomfortable. There is no way to know what will happen unfortunately. It would be great if we all had crystal balls! Hematomas will often resolve on their own if they are small. If the hematoma is large then it is less likely and surgery is needed. Hematomas do take a long time to resolve on their own (usually months). Of course it will never resolve if he keeps traumatizing the ear by shaking his head or scratching at it. If this is a problem, you may want to consider getting him an ear sock (SurgiSox) to protect the earflap. It looks a bit silly but it really helps. ( https://www.dogleggs.com/surgi-sox-aural-compression-bandage/ ) I would not say there are any health risks associated with leaving it alone to see if it will resolve on it's own. Personally, I would try the sock for a few weeks and see what happens. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

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.

They will examine Tank’s ear and then discuss the various options. If it is something like a hematoma, they may drain it or offer a surgical correction. The surgical correction generally works best. Draining hematoma is typically requires a few drainings as well as wearing a special sleeve to stop the ear from flapping around. Many times there is an underlying allergy, infection or a mast cell tumor so they will check him for those causes as well. If it is something like a tumor, that is a completely different treatment plan. I hope this helps.

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!

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.