What does an aural hematoma look like?
With an ear hematoma, your dog’s ear flap will be swollen.
If the lesion is confined to just one part of the pinna, the swelling may be small. For larger hematomas, the whole ear flap will be engorged, and the weight of the collection of blood may cause the ear flap to droop and hang lower than usual.
An ear hematoma may feel squishy or taut to the touch. More than likely, your pup will object to you touching it, since the pressure can be painful.
Suspect your pet has an aural hematoma? Book a vet visit.
In almost all cases, some sort of trauma or injury is to blame — that’s what causes the blood vessels between the ear cartilage and skin to break and leak.
The most common type of ear flap trauma is from a dog repeatedly scratching their ear and shaking their head, due to an ear infection, allergic skin condition, ear mites, or a foreign body lodged in the ear canal. For that reason, your vet will take a close look inside your pet’s ears.
Aural hematomas can also develop from an accidental bump or injury to the ear flap. For example, this could happen during vigorous play, if your pup runs through bushes and their ear gets scraped by a sharp branch, or following a bite wound on the ear flap from another dog or a wild animal.
Less commonly, health conditions that cause blood clotting abnormalities can also lead to a blood pocket formation in the ear flap.
Since scratching and head shaking from an ear issue are by far the most common cause, the best way to prevent ear hematomas is by keeping your pet’s ears clean and healthy.
Ask your vet for advice on your pet’s ears because care instructions may vary a lot from dog to dog. Some pups might only need an occasional ear cleaning. However, other dogs — especially droopy-eared breeds like Basset Hounds and Cocker Spaniels that are at a great risk for ear infections and ear problems — may need frequent ear cleanings with special ear maintenance solutions.
Even though surgery is said to be the best method to avoid scarring and malformation, “I’ve see the ones that have gone to surgery and half of those are as scarred down as those that haven’t,” Dr. Kaplan observes. “And I’ve seen ones where the owners did nothing and their ears look great.”
Dr. Leni Kaplan, a faculty member in the Community Practice Service of Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine in Ithaca, New York, says if she does decide to treat a hematoma, she will insert a small sterile tube to help the ear drain. (Some vets use a specific draining tube called a cannula; Dr. Kaplan prefers a bovine teat cannula, used to treat mastitis in cows, or just sterile IV tubing sewn inside the ear.)
The procedure involves opening the hematoma surgically with an incision on the inner flap of the ear running in a wavy line; the incision drains the hematoma. Then the incision is stitched up, and more stitches are used in what looks just like a “quilting” technique, with knots on both sides of the ear flap, preventing any part of the ear flap from puffing up with fluid again. Many small stitches are used so there are no large unstitched areas where the blood can accumulate again. (Some vets actually stitch shirt buttons to both sides of the ear to exert more and wider pressure on the flap, literally pressing it together!)
Below are some methods for treating hematomas. Some are mainstays that most veterinarians will recognize; others are relatively new approaches that try to maximize the effort to get the skin and cartilage to start talking to each other again, and one has been used as far back as the time of the Pharaohs – on humans, at least. Remember, though, that taking action is a choice, not a necessity: If you’re okay with that frankfurter shriveling up into a cauliflower, then you can do nothing. Your dog probably couldn’t care less.
The good news about hematomas is that, if left untreated, they are eventually reabsorbed. They will not burst – even though by all appearance they look ready to pop – and the dog is left no worse for wear, except for having to endure the discomfort of a large blood blister weighing down her ear. (There is a great diversity of opinion about just how painful ear hematomas are for dogs, and the only ones who know for sure aren’t talking.)
Treatment options for ear hematomas in dogs
As soon as you spot a hematoma in your dogs ear, visit your vet â theyll be able to determine the cause and recommend treatment options. Dr. McCullough says that the main treatment goals for aural hematomas are to alleviate swelling, prevent the hematoma from recurring and minimize scarring.
To reduce the swelling, your veterinarian may place a drain in your dogs ear (via surgery) to catch excess fluid until the tiny, broken blood vessels in the ear flap have healed. Your pup may be sent home with their ear bandaged and will also likely be required to wear an e-collar while they recover. Since their ear is draining, youll want to keep your pup in a separate area of your house that allows for easy clean-up, she adds.
Non-surgical treatment options usually involve putting liquid steroids into a dogs impacted ear flap. If your vet suggests this treatment option, they may send your pup home with a daily oral steroid to combat inflammation.