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Aural Haematoma


Abbie
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I'm doing an assessment for tafe on discharge for a dog thats just been treated for an aural haematoma. Looking for any help that I can get. So I need a discription of the procedure (putting the drain in), a discription of possible complications and clinical signs that these may be occouring, home managment procedures, a discrption of meds to be given.

If anyone can give me a hand that would be great.

Thanks

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One of my GSDs had a haematoma last year. She had been shaking her head for a day or 2 and before I had a chance to make a vet appointment, she'd shaken enough to make the haematoma so I booked her straight in for surgery.

She had a big slit in her ear and several drains around it. The muck drained out around her ear and everywhere!

Unfortunately for her, the vets didn't do a swab of her ear at the time of surgery, so she battled with a still infected itchy ear while the drains were in - so had to wear an ecollar. She was on antibiotics.

She had a swab done when the drains came out 10 days later and was put on ear drops for the infection.

It all healed up fine, it was thick with scar tissue and her ear sat funny though.

Cinear1.jpg

Cinear2.jpg

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Diesel had an aural haematoma a few months ago. He has allergies, and his ears often bother him. His ears had been bothering him a bit at the time and he was shaking his head a lot. I went to look at his ears on his walk and noticed that one looked swollen/fluid filled and knew it was a haematoma :whiteflag: . So I booked him into the vet that night and he had surgery on it the next morning.

My vet left a slit of the ear open, and there were a lot of stitches, not a drain though. He came home with ear drops for an ear infection, antibiotics and cortisone. At the beginning when he shook his head blood went everywhere! That particular ear had already been in a war, had been torn in half by another dog, and after that and the haematoma, it doesn't quite sit right, but is not too bad, still upright. I kept him separated from Kaos for a while, as they play rough and Kaos likes to lick his ears sometimes.

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Clavulox and Rimadyl.

They generally just stitch up the pinna like a quilt to form scar tissue so that the ear cannot fill up with blood again. Some Vet's use that flexi drain (in pics above) or buttons, xray film etc etc. Just so that the pressure of the suture line does not cause the sutures to cut into the ear.

They need to go home with an Elizabethan collar so they don't scratch the ear with their hind legs, and a lot of dogs benefit from having the ear bandaged to their head so that they can't shake and flap the pinna causing it to bleed again.

In some cases an ear infection starts the process, so the dog may need to be discharged with drops to treat this, and advice on regular cleaning.

Edited by Staff'n'Toller
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One of my labs had an aural haematoma last year. There was no drain in her ear just lots of stitches and an open slit. She came home with Amoxycillin and Macrolone tablets and did not have to wear an e collar.

ISH what vets do you go to? I cannot believe they did not do a swab of the ear at the time of surgery.

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ISH what vets do you go to? I cannot believe they did not do a swab of the ear at the time of surgery.

I was pretty cross, because I asked them to when I dropped her off! When I collected her, the nurse looked up her file on the computer and it said "Ear is dirty, but no drops required" I made an appointment when her stitches were due out, rather than letting one of the nurses take them out and had the swab done then - got charged a consult fee too!

We go to a different vet clinic now :whiteflag:

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