I have a 7 year old bitch that seems to have developed a hematoma on her ear. She has had ear infections on and off all of her life but when treated they go away for a couple of months then reappear. I never had a problem before. What can be done for a hematoma other than surgery. It doesn't seem to bother her but it is getting bigger.

I had a Golden who got an ear hematoma, 1st in one ear and then later in the other ear. The vet who treated the 1st one sliced the ear flap open to get the fluid out and also the "clot" that was plugging up the natural drainage/circulation in that area. Then, rather than stitching the slice closed, he got out a box of buttons like my mother used to have and sewed several pairs of buttons, one on the inside and one outside the ear flap, to hold the area of the hematoma closed. After a week or so, he snipped the buttons off and the ear was fine, nearly as smooth as it originally was, little scarring.

A different vet treated the 2nd hematoma a couple of months later and only opened and flushed the hematoma and bandaged it to the dog's head. That method didn't work--but taught me to question vets about their treatments. The hematoma re-filled and this time the vet used buttons like the 1st one had--I supplied the buttons. This ear had some scarring, but healed fine.

I've also seen a hematoma treated by wrapping it tightly with no surgery to drain it first--a bad infection developed. The surgery is minor, I think done under local anesthesia or very little sedation. Without it, the hematoma tends to get bigger and the area involved gets larger.

My dog had a hematoma the size of a man's wallet on her ear. My vet stitched a checkerboard pattern on her ear and also cut small circles on the inside/underside of the flap for drainage. It healed nice and the cross stitching ensured there would be no future hematomas.

my girl had it when she was pregnant i drained it every day with a big needle for about 3 weeks and it went away it looks like it always did just a little messy also put her on cefelexon

One of my other breed developed one. The vet put in a drain tube, and we wrapped her head and ears with a netting material so that goo did not fly everywhere.

Had this years ago in both ears. Vet gave steroids which I am not crazy about, but it cleared it up and avoided surgery.

Hi. I have a friend with a 10 year old bitch who developed a hematoma in each ear, one right after the other. Her vet used some sort of stapling procedure. I don't know anything about the procedure, but it might be worth looking into. I just saw the bitch on Friday and there's no evidence at all that anything was wrong with either ear in the last 6 months.

Good luck!

Aloha,
Kim

One of my girls started to get one after whelping. She was rubbing along the fenceline when she went out to get rid of her itchy dead coat. Hence the damage to her ear. Anyway, a friend told me to ice it on and off for a couple of days...it worked!

In our part of the world, vets have become less and less trigger happy with surgery or draining for ear hematoma.

Our equine/canine osteopath prescribed some homeopathic granules for two Golden Retrievers belonging to friends, and the swelling subsided in two weeks time - no tacking, no surgery, no draining... and no scar tissue.

My now oldest girl, 4 years ago at around age 9 or so had pred injections into both ears and it worked (it was not advisable for her to go under anesthesia if avoidable due to other health concerns)

She had severe and returning hematomas. These were the worst and had to be addressed.

She healed but from having hematomas repeatedly, the injections and these being severe (I assume partially from head shaking etc) she was left with "Yoda ears" as we call them. Thick and shortened, leathery and sticking out some. This happened as they healed.

I think anything done medically or surgically could POSSIBLY cause scarring or shortening. As she was never bred or shown this was much less of an issue for us, cosmetic and iy did impede her hearing severely (and increased ear infections as the ear canal became smaller) She never got the hematomas back which was the main goal(knock on wood)

This could happen to any dog with hematomas, I think it's the luck of the draw, the skill of the surgeon and healing process after any procedure.

I would try a holistic approach first as JP mentioned if feasible. If not you have a few options out there.

Good luck

Thank you to everyone that gave their advice. I didn't realize how many different ways there were to treat a hematoma. My vet came over this morning to needle puppies(lucky aren't I)and he decided to open up the ear and drain it. There was a lot of blood. He then wraped it loosely to keep dirt etc out of it. He had tried the drain on a dog before and it worked until the drain was removed and the ear filled up again. I will let you all know how it turns out. Thanks again Nancy