Hi all. My poor 33 y/o gelding has had a large (for the area) seroma in his ear canal for several weeks. My vets have never seen one in an equine ear, and have consulted with a surgeon at Virginia Tech/Morven who also has not seen an ear canal hematoma/seroma in a horse (although they saw an unhappy pig with one once…) and therefore didn’t have much advice to offer. I’ve searched the forums and while there are lots of chest and rump seromas out there, I haven’t found anyone with a similar experience in the ear. I figured I’d post just in case someone might have faced something like this and have advice to share.
We aspirated and drained it twice during the first week mostly to figure out what in the world it is, and treated him with antibiotics for the first two weeks in case of infection, although fortunately there hasn’t been any indication of an active infection at all. It’s refilled quickly after both attempts at draining. My vet suggests leaving it alone for the most part at this point; it occasionally drains some on its own so I’m gently cleaning it when that happens since he’s a little more amenable to me sticking my fingers in his ear when the pressure has decreased, but we’re not doing much else. He’s already on Equioxx, so he is getting some pain relief. He’s eating, drinking, and pooping, but obviously is super uncomfortable and aware of his ear all the time. I just hate not being able to do anything to help him feel better.
We initially considered surgery to drain, clean, and suture to prevent refilling like small animal vets do for ear hematomas in dogs, but it’s been so frigid that we’ve not wanted to mess with major sedation given his age and it’s deep enough in the canal that it would be quite difficult. So now I’m waiting for it to resolve on its own. Has anyone seen a seroma in an ear, and if so, what was the progression? Did it ultimately reabsorb and heal, or need to be drained and sutured, and how long did you wait? There’s very little in the equine veterinary literature about them, so I’ve been reading about human auricular seromas and there doesn’t seem to be a clear consensus on the best treatment. Any advice or wisdom for how I can help my boy would be much appreciated. Thanks so much!
