11 1/2 year old boxer who is not a good candidate for any anesthesia at this point. Right pinna is full, not heavy or drooping, but thicker then normal.
Appt. at 5:30 tomorrow with vet… I am on the downhill ride with him, and his comfort is my focal point. I know Dr. is going to recommend surgery. Anyone ever have the hematoma break up and absorb?
[QUOTE=Cruisesmom;8183380]
11 1/2 year old boxer who is not a good candidate for any anesthesia at this point. Right pinna is full, not heavy or drooping, but thicker then normal.
Appt. at 5:30 tomorrow with vet… I am on the downhill ride with him, and his comfort is my focal point. I know Dr. is going to recommend surgery. Anyone ever have the hematoma break up and absorb?[/QUOTE]
Can they do a local anesthetic, so they can lance and stitch?
I would ask if they would drain it and put him on steroids. That’s what the vet I work for does if surgery is not an option.
As an alternative to surgery, personally I like the active suction drain, made with a butterfly catheter. Not all vets do it, but it seems to work well. It doesn’t require full anesthesia, just mild sedation.
Just went through this with my corgi. Since the whole ear wasn’t involved he opted to go with draining it and then they bandaged the ear down to her head to keep some pressure on it and she had to wear the bandages for a week. Worked great and her ear even stayed up!!!
Quite often if you just leave it, it will go away on its own, but it will leave a “cauliflower” ear. The main risk that makes a vet recommend surgery is the possibility of rupture, which is not a huge risk. Most of the time just draining it doesn’t help. It will just fill up again. Although in LoriO’s situation with the pressure bandage, that seemed to help.
The reason surgery is recommended is because leaving it as-is is quite painful for a time, causes the ear to be difficult to medicate (they get that way due to ear infection 95% of the time), and it causes significant scarring and takes weeks to heal.
SOME form of drainage and bandaging is better than doing nothing at all.
Our shepherd had his second one recently. With the first one, the vet at the time would only do surgery, claiming no other method worked long term. He was left with a large scar and his ear is now folded.
The second time was his other ear and the new vet manually drained it and injected with steroids. It was still bubbled for about a week but healed just fine without any scarring. I would not opt for surgery as a first treatment again.
Sometimes Pred will clear them up. We generally try that before we opt for surgery. The surgery isn’t a lance and drain. If you lance and drain, it will probably fill up again. Surgery is actually suturing the skin that has been pulled apart back together and leaving some space for drainage. It’s not a super quick procedure, so a little Dex isn’t going to work… Especially because it is an ear, which is sensitive.
Your vet may have another option. I’m sure he/she will probably try some steroid.
I have a 6 year old boxer with natural ears. About 3 years ago he had a hematoma that took up about 1/3 of his ear flap. I would say it was about .25" thick initially. My conservative vet suggested “benign neglect” so we let it be for several weeks. It never seemed to bother him and it slowly receded. Yes, his ear is slightly thicker now but he was never gonna be a movie star (other than in my eyes!). It never recurred either. We believe his came from allergies and he either shook it too much or scratched it too hard. As someone who gets the dangers of putting an elderly Boxer under, I would suggest you hear what your vet recommends and take it from there. Good luck!
I have had good success doing the following: draining the hematoma, adding depomedrol into the hematoma space (I inject using the same needle that was placed to drain ear). I then have the owners apply Arnica gel to the ear three times daily (you can get this at GNC or health food store).
Update?
The hematoma absorbed. It was not large. It will be fairly easy for the ear to fill up again if we have continued itching. His little brother likes to clean his ears, and causes some head shaking. So far so good.
At his appt, we were diagnosed with DM. So we have another issue to tackle and keep him comfortable.
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