Harper and Drew got into a fight over a rawhide chew on
the 7th of February. I was unable to get to them with a spray bottle to
break it up, so it lasted longer than an ordinary fight. Toward the end I
heard yelping. Not a good sign. As usual after a fight I checked the
both of them over really well.
While Drew was fine, Harper had a number of minor lacerations to the outside of his ear or pinna. He shook his head before I could clean him up and stop the bleeding. I later found blood on my bathroom mirror and the top of my toilet from a 23 lb dog shaking his head. But the shaking did more than dirty up the bathroom.
I checked Harper's ears the next day and found a squishy but painless swelling the size and shape of a lima bean on the underside of Harper's pinna. Hmmm... lima bean. I planned to let it go, and if it was still there when my dogs went for their annual visit in March, I'd let the vet know. A week later it was still painless but it had the thickness of large baby carrot and extended about 2 1/2 inches down to the tip of his pinna. The weight of it caused his ear to hang low. The next day the vet pronounced the swelling an aural hematoma.
The pinna is composed of cartilage sandwiched between two layers of skin. If a capillary is injured it can leak out stretching and filling the space between skin and cartilage. For most dogs, repeated head shaking causes the injury.The usual cause for this shaking is an ear infection or ear mites. Harper's ears were free from infection and mites. Trauma was the cause of his hematoma. His head shaking must have busted a fight-injured capillary or increased bleeding from one that was already ruptured from the fight.
My vet explained three methods of treatment, two of which she would not do.
While Drew was fine, Harper had a number of minor lacerations to the outside of his ear or pinna. He shook his head before I could clean him up and stop the bleeding. I later found blood on my bathroom mirror and the top of my toilet from a 23 lb dog shaking his head. But the shaking did more than dirty up the bathroom.
I checked Harper's ears the next day and found a squishy but painless swelling the size and shape of a lima bean on the underside of Harper's pinna. Hmmm... lima bean. I planned to let it go, and if it was still there when my dogs went for their annual visit in March, I'd let the vet know. A week later it was still painless but it had the thickness of large baby carrot and extended about 2 1/2 inches down to the tip of his pinna. The weight of it caused his ear to hang low. The next day the vet pronounced the swelling an aural hematoma.
The pinna is composed of cartilage sandwiched between two layers of skin. If a capillary is injured it can leak out stretching and filling the space between skin and cartilage. For most dogs, repeated head shaking causes the injury.The usual cause for this shaking is an ear infection or ear mites. Harper's ears were free from infection and mites. Trauma was the cause of his hematoma. His head shaking must have busted a fight-injured capillary or increased bleeding from one that was already ruptured from the fight.
My vet explained three methods of treatment, two of which she would not do.
