5 replies to this topic

[duboisdobes]

Just looking for some experienced advice.....

We adopted Ellen (Alena) from SCD in Dec of 2005. She is pretty accident prone. Her latest injury happened while "hunting/bounding like a deer" with her big sister in the woods. She sliced her ear flap in half from the tip up - natural ears. I took her in and they stiched her up and wrapped the ear. I took her back for a check up and they said that they were worried that a hematoma was developing so they re-wrapped the ear. I check the ear a few days later and it still seemed to be bleeding. We re-wrapped it again. Last night (4 days since the last re-wrap) I removed the wrap and blotted it with peroxide. The bleeding seems to have stopped, but this morning I think I could see a little swelling. Should I re-wrap immediately or see if it resolves itself? She is set to have the stiches out on Friday, and the peroxide seemed to really help dry up the wound. The swelling is pretty hard and it doesn't look like anything I have seen on the internet when I have looked up hematoma - could it be scare tissue?? Worse case I can take her back in for a re-check, but I was trying to avoid paying for them to say Yeap needs to be re-wrapped....I have found my wraps to be just an effective and much more econimical

Thanks!

[Arda]

You probably have hardened blood clots in there. Ears bleed so badly when they hurt the ears. Give it some time before you do anything. They have to dispel into the system. Don't panic yet.

[Karen A]

Ardas right, don't panic yet:) Hematomas are just blood clots in the soft tissue. I've seen my fair share of them with my "naturals" and they always have gone away with time. The body will slowly reabsorb the old blood. One time my vet put what looked like a big button on my doberboy's ear to help disperse the clot and prevent it from continuing to bleed. He looked like he had a big tacky yellow earring in..LOL! The hardest part of the healing process is not letting it get injured enough to start the bleeding again. Even a hard shake of the head could trigger it. Good luck!

[KellyB]

Can you call your vet and let them know what's going on? I'm only saying this because I had a dog that had a Hematoma before they tried the wrapping thing and it didn't work so they ended up doing surgery on it. It could be just the healing process also.


Kelly

[duboisdobes]

Well, we made it more than 24 hours - no bleeding and I don't see any additional swelling and she isn't shaking her head either. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is just scare tissue or a blood clot.

Thanks for you help!

[LStevens]

One of my crazy horses, a two-year-old filly, mowed me down and broke my leg. I had a hematoma the size of my hand on my left calf. The doctor's wanted to do surgery, but I said no. it took sometime - a couple of years - but it walled itself off and eventually was absorbed by my system. Arda and Karen are right on with their advice. Sounds like things are settling down, after reading your post from today. Hopefully, you're on the right track.

Linda