How to safely remove a matted knot from my puppy's ear near skin?

Take the mats between your fingers and carefully and gently pull them apart. Then take a comb and gently comb them out. If that does not work you can cut them off with scissors (make sure you do not cut into the skin, it suffices to cut about 1/8th inch above the skin). Regularly brush or comb your rabbit to keep new mats from forming. Make sure you have someone hold your rabbit comfortably when you try to cut the mats

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Don't cut it! It is very very easy to accidently cut the skin when trying to cut out a mat with scissors. It is best to use trimmers (electric shaver) to shave the area off vs. cutting with scissors. If you don't have trimmers at home, you can just leave it until you are able to go to a groomer or to a vet to have it shaved. You can try spraying detangling spray into the mat and then very slowly and gently work it out, however this often requires a large amount of time, and a very very patient dog. Most won't tolerate this and it needs to be shaved off. Best of luck with Ziggy.

Please don’t use scissors to trim the fur since it’s easy to cut the ear flap by mistake. I recommend taking him to PetCo where the groomer can take clippers and go down the ear from top to bottom and shave off the fur. Once it’s short and growing in if you comb or brush the fur it should not get tangled into these pads of fur. I’ve found that once they get like you describe the only way to get rid of the pads is to shave them off. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Shadow.

Unfortunately I recommend shaving them off. The reason for it is because it can be a very painful process for Coco to have someone detangle her matts. I would also recommend a groomer. Understand that if you do have someone try to get the matts out it can sometimes be expensive due to the length of time it can take. The quickest and easiest for Coco is to shave her and then brush her daily so this doesn't happen again. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

If it is truly just matted fur with normal skin underneath, you can use clippers with a very short (40) blade close to the skin to remove the mats. If he won't tolerate this should be able to find a groomer who will clip cats. If the skin underneath the mat does not look normal you should see a veterinarian: sometimes mats can form over a skin mass or infection.

I would not keep Milo's ears wrapped in gauze. That's not good for him, and all it will do is irritate him. Dogs develop hematomas typically from trauma to their ears, such as scratching it a lot or shaking their heads a lot. Dogs do this when they have ear infections or matted ears. To help keep Milo's ears clean, I recommend getting Epi-otic OTC from your vet's office to clean them on a regular basis. Make sure you have him groomed regularly as well to keep them from getting matted.

He will be fine. You’ve already applied the medication so don’t clean it as you may break the scab and start it bleeding again. This is a common injury and it will heal in a few days to a week. I recommend using clippers rather than scissors to trim the fur as it’s safer. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Max.