A hematoma is a condition when a blood vessels bursts in the pinna (flippy-flap part) of the dog’s ear. So the ear flap feels like there’s a balloon in it. The bigger and the harder that balloon is the more it hurts.
If left alone for weeks, it would eventually break open, bleed and get maggots.
There are several ways to address this but my favorite is to tape the ear flap over the top of the head.
Once the ear flap is secured over-and-under the bandage, I’ll put a needle to it, and drain it. I will usually put a tenth or so of Kenalog into the ear flap’s void because it seems to dissolve a clot and cause adhesion of the ear back together. In any event, healing is superior and faster and “crinkling” is less.
Once the ear is drained, the bandage is left on for a week, and then it’s changed.
This is repeated TWO more times (a total of three bandages) over as many weeks.
When the last bandage comes off, I like to have the dog’s head n a collar / cone to avoid head shaking or pawing the ear for the first day or two out of the bandage/wrap.
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How We Tape Up The Dog’s Ear
The key is to apply tape to the edges of the ears on both sides. So the ear is basically held by opposing edges of tape and then taped over a small stack of gauze on the top of their head, with Elastikon plus Vetrap around under their neck and around in front of and behind the opposing ear. The opposing ear flap is used (left out of the wrap) to keep the bandage from sliding off forward, or sliding backwards down the neck. It was hard to illustrate but hopefully it makes sense.
