# Ear Flap Very Swollen



## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

We just noticed tonight that our eight-year-old Male golden retriever has a very swollen ear flap. The swollen area is just smaller than the size of this whole ear flap and about 3/4" thick. It feels like it's filled with liquid. It feels like a water balloon. It doesn't seem to bother him at all. There's nothing else I can detect. It doesn't smell bad. Doesn't hurt him when I squeeze it. He's never had any ear problems in his life. No infections, nothing like that. It wouldn't do any good to provide a picture because it would be really hard to see anything relevant. He spent the last two days outside a lot with me while I was doing fall yard cleanup. He's off leash and does whatever he wants, which includes rooting around in the woodpile, digging to get at woodchucks, chewing sticks and is lying on the leaf pile. So I am wondering if maybe he got an insect bite. A spider perhaps.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

This is a shot of him from 2012. Just to introduce Barkley.


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## ArchersMom (May 22, 2013)

Could it be an aural hematoma? If it is, you need to get him to the vet right away so that they can drain it and treat it. It could leave his ear disfigured.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

I am just reading this to understand what a hematoma is.


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## ArchersMom (May 22, 2013)

You'd need to search "aural hematoma."
Try this Ear Hematomas in Dogs


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## ArchersMom (May 22, 2013)

Basically the ear flap fills with blood, like a big balloon. It can be caused just by the animal scratching at their ear too forcefully.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

He's an itchy boy alright. So he does scratch his ears forcefully every now and then. We treat him with prednisone, so it's mostly under control, but it's a balancing act because we try to give as little prednisone as possible while still keeping him comfortable.


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## ArchersMom (May 22, 2013)

My golden boy has recurring ear infections, and will be starting a steroid soon too. It was a foster cat that taught me about aural hematomas. He had one pop up after he apparently contracted ear mites. It was quite a sight.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

You're probably going to have to make a trip to the Vet to get the ear flap drained and hope that the problem resolves itself. If it refills again you'll need the Vet to overstitch the ear.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

What's the difference between the two procedures. "Draining" and "over stitching"? 

Regular veterinarian is closed until Monday. I was just on the phone with the emergency vet clinic. It is a 24-hour service that is about 35 miles away. They said pretty much the same things that I've learned from you all. The dog doesn't seem to be bothered at all at the moment. I just gave him some prednisone to reduce the possibility that he might scratch it again. Will assess the situation again in the morning. Thanks you two.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

Max Volt said:


> What's the difference between the two procedures. "Draining" and "over stitching"?
> 
> Regular veterinarian is closed until Monday. I was just on the phone with the emergency vet clinic. It is a 24-hour service that is about 35 miles away. They said pretty much the same things that I've learned from you all. The dog doesn't seem to be bothered at all at the moment. I just gave him some prednisone to reduce the possibility that he might scratch it again. Will assess the situation again in the morning.


The hematoma is a blood filled sack. If it isn't drained it will harden and form scar tissue inside the ear flap leaving it thick and malformed.

The vet can insert a needle and drain off the excess blood, restoring the flap to its normal shape and thickness, however if the internal injury is still leaking, the hematoma will refill and you're back to square one. 

When they overstitch the ear they drain the excess blood from the ear flap and stitch the ear in a quilt pattern so the internal bleeding fills only a small pocket and clots.


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## BajaOklahoma (Sep 27, 2009)

Waiting until Monday will decrease your options.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

I went thru this with my Irish Setter when he was about 10 1/2. Mt vet drained it, but it filled back up almost over night, so then he had to do the surgery. Boots never had another problem with it. They can also get them from shaking their heads a lot.

My son 's exwife had a black lab mix who had to have one ear done and then a few months later, had to have the other ear done. Hank also never had another problem. Good luck.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Swampcollie said:


> You're probably going to have to make a trip to the Vet to get the ear flap drained and hope that the problem resolves itself. If it refills again you'll need the Vet to overstitch the ear.


Just went through this with my boy two weeks ago. 

My boy's ear was not that swollen and didn't have a large area that was filled up with fluid. My Vet gave me two options, drain it or surgically repair it. She told me that in the 21 years she's been practicing, she has only seen draining the ear work once. She said normally after it's drained it will fill back up and the surgery is needed. 

The other option was to have it surgically repaired. I opted to have it drained first because the area wasn't that big and it had not increased in size from the time I noticed it. He also had an ear infection, she put a heavy duty ear med in it, his ears could not be cleaned for two weeks, no swimming and no baths. 

Having it drained worked, glad I opted to try this first instead of having the surgery done which she really preferred to do. So far it has not filled back up. She also put some steroids in the area after she drained it and he was put on Prednisone for 20 days. If it should fill back up, then he'll have to have the surgery done. 

I recommend making an appt. as soon as possible to have your boy's ear checked out. 

Welcome to the forum, Barkley's a good looking boy. 

Best of luck


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

I also recommend not waiting. Just because your dog does not 'seem' to be in discomfort, does not mean he is not in discomfort. 
With all my goldens, I found them to be extremely stoic and won't let you know they are in pain till it is really really bad!
If not drained, it will keep on leaking blood and get more swollen and believe me, it will hurt!


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

Took Barkley in to the emergency vet today. They drained the ear and infused it with some steroid. It seemed to go pretty well. As you can see from the pictures they bandaged his ear and wrapped his head. He was pretty good in the car about leaving the bandage alone. We even stopped to get some groceries and left him in the car unsupervised with no problem. Now however, the bandage seems to be slipping back aown onto his neck and the ear seems to be refilling. He's getting tired of the bandage too and finally is trying to rub his head on the floor. We can probably go in to our regular vet tomorrow.


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## jennretz (Jul 24, 2013)

It's good you took him in and a follow up with your regular vet makes sense tomorrow. You may have to get the cone of shame for him tonight so that he leaves it alone. Poor guy! Hope he's on the mend soon.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

Poor boy! You can go to many pet stores and buy vet wrap ( in many colors) if you need to rewrap it. Careful with the airway- the vet tech that wrapped my golden did it too tight at first nd he couldnt breath well. It is really a PIA to deal with this, and if he does get to scratching it, you might have to just go for the stitches. My dog Finn had his stitched in a patchwork. It never reoccurred, but the first 48 hours was miserable with vet wrap around his whole head . It the short term, it stunk; in the longterm, it was fine and healed really well. We left the stitches in an extra long time. I am sorry you have to contend with this. It is one of those things that is not life-threatening but is serious and really makes the dogs miserable.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

Too late to get a cone collar tonight where we live. Kinda dumb that the vet didn't offer one.


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## ArchersMom (May 22, 2013)

Poor guy! He looks like he's taking it all in stride. I hope it heals up quickly and he's back to having fun.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

He was excited when we got home from the vet. Part of his normal routine would be to jump out of my truck and roll and rub on the lawn (he's allergic to grass of course :doh. I had to discourage him from that this evening. He's quite calm now and doesn't seem to be paying any attention to the bandage. I think I might give him some Benadryl before bed. I haven't given him any in a long time, But I used to use it to help with his itching. I think three or four capsules worth will have a sedative effect that will keep him still till morning.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

That sounds like a good plan. I used to use acepromazine, but then it kind of fell out of favor so now they get lorzepam for brief sedation.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

He ripped the bandage off just before bedtime. He was so good up to that point that I thought it might work. It was probably a good thing. Since his ear was partially filled with fluid again. Only a third as much as the first time. We placed a call to our vet and set up an appointment for this morning. It was decided that we would let the vet place a cannula (a drainage tube with the closure on the outer end) in the ear flap. So now it looks like he will be wearing an E collar for much of the next three weeks. He's dealing with it amazingly well.


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## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

Hope his ear heals up quickly, poor guy. 
He sure is a good looking boy, love his color. I'm a huge fan on the Reds, love them. My bridge boy was a little darker than your boy. 
My current boy is a dark gold.


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

I went through this with my dog a couple of years ago, and it was fairly difficult to deal with. We drained the ear three or four times, and it just filled up again. Then the vet injected a steroid solution into the cavity and the problem cleared up in the space of a week. We never bound the ear or used a collar - the dog didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. 

The ear did become slightly misshaped: the deformation wasn't visible, but you could feel a kind of hard ridge if you touched it. She never had another problem with hematomas. In her case I'm glad we waited before operating. Best of luck with your guy - hope it clears up soon.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

I've had a few dogs, and they were all amazing, but Barkley is in a class by himself. I could tell ya stories!


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

This is one of my favorite pictures. I love his the proportions of his head and snout. And he's also got a great athletic body. Six-and-a-half years ago I found him on craigslist! His people were giving him away. Can you believe my luck!?


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## NC Dogs (Apr 8, 2015)

My lab had that. They drained it, stitched it ( the skin had separated from the flesh), and put sewed foam pads on each side with stitches. It looked like a sandwich sticking out from his head.

Don't let it get too big because it's basically tearing the skin apart from the meat of the ear.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

So Barkley's had his ear drain in for a week. As you can see from the picture it's a cannula with a screw-top closure on the end. We're draining the ear about twice a day. Each time we get about one or two teaspoonfuls of relatively clear liquid. I would say that early in the week the liquid might've been a little bit pink in color, like it was tinged with a small amount of blood. I'm glad we didn't just try to have them drain it with a needle because that ear needs a lot more draining than we imagined. 

One bit of good news is that he doesn't need the e-collar during the day. He doesn't seem to notice the drain at all. We have to keep an eye on him when he is outside because he loves to roll and rub his head on the ground. We have him wear the E collar at night, because, of course, we can't supervise him while we are sleeping. I'm amazed at how good he is about the collar when we do have to use it.


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## jennretz (Jul 24, 2013)

Max Volt said:


> This is one of my favorite pictures. I love his the proportions of his head and snout. And he's also got a great athletic body. Six-and-a-half years ago I found him on craigslist! His people were giving him away. Can you believe my luck!?


I love that picture. He is such a good looking boy! Hope his ear is on the mend soon and he can get back to having fun


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

That is a very cool picture/ drain, and it is educational to see it. This is one of the biggest PIA injuries dogs have without being major injuries. I dread having another one to deal with bc it was no fun. Seeing this drain, I might go that way instead of the patchwork surgery.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

We're due back at the vet's November 10. I'll post here with any new developments.


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

Ljilly28 said:


> That is a very cool picture/ drain, and it is educational to see it.



So we suffered one setback. Opening and closing the drain cap proved difficult. The cap would become stuck and difficult to open. This caused too much stress and movement on the cannula which in turn caused irritation and inflammation in the ear flap at the point where the stitches held it in. The stitches failed and the cannula fell out. The vet placed in new cannula in the same opening with new stitching. This time she recommended that we not use the screw-on cap. We were instructed to leave the drain open to drain freely. This did the trick! We didn't notice any drainage mess so we pretty much left it alone. On November 28 the vet removed this cannula and all is well. The ear flap is a little bit thicker, but not much. You certainly can't tell by looking that anything it is amiss.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

My old guy Hunter has had hematomas on both ears at the same time earlier this year. We actually just left them alone and the blood dissipated on it's own fairly quickly. We were very lucky, I'm not sure why that happened, but we'll take it. Next time we'll probably not be so lucky, because it will probably come back. So I think we'll opt for the quilt surgery next time. I'm crossing my fingers it doesn't happen anytime soon.


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## Mcgee (Dec 12, 2016)

*Golden retriever swollen ear*

Three weeks ago we had noticed McGee's ear flap was swollen. Contacted our vet and he put a drain in for two weeks. Was looking good at the next check up to take the drain out. A 2 week later. We've been careful and covered his back paw when were at work or sleeping so he wont scratch to irritate the ear. Suddenly the ear has filled up again. Unfortunate where the drain was removed healed up so it would not drain. I guess back to the vet. would love some suggestions.


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## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

We went through this last year with my now 10 year old. Vet told me that every trick in the book does not have guaranteed success. We opted to have the vet drain it, the have me rub the ear a couple time a day in a downward direction, part of hand inside the ear, part outside, almost like you are trying to seal the inside back together again. It worked for three months - I went away for a three day dog show, and did not tell my family to continue, figured we were okay, a few days later it came back. I chose to let it go and heal on its own - luckily he is not a show dog, the ear has a fold on it now, but it is healed and causes no issues. It breaks my heart to look at is, but he has such long fur, it is not that noticeable. 

Not sure what I would do if it happened again.


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## wellarmedglockgirl (Oct 6, 2016)

Our golden had this twice. He had to have a surgery. He would shake his head and the blood vessels would break in the ear causing it to fill with blood. 
Hope you can get your boy to vet soon.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

I posted above in Dec 2015. Hunter did have ear hematoma again in both ears this summer. The vet convinced me to use steroids instead. 4 days of steroids and all was gone.

This time I paid attention to the symptoms more,closely. The skin around,Hunter's eyes got red and irritated. He started rolling the side of his head on the ground. That's when I checked his ears and they were faintly,swelling a tiny bit. So I started the steroids this time. His ears started to swell. But after 4 days the swelling was gone. So now I'll be using steroids. never thought that would work!


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## Max Volt (Oct 18, 2015)

[original poster] It's been a year now since Barkley had the ear hematoma and the drain placed in his ear. I am happy to report that all is well. It seems to have healed up perfectly I can't really tell which ear was affected, not visually nor by touching his the ears and comparing them. The plastic drain placed in the ear and held by stitches really worked for us and the cost was quite reasonable. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if the need arose.


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## wdadswell (Dec 17, 2015)

Love it, when we get a follow up! Thanks and so glad Barkley is doing well!!


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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

Alaska7133 said:


> I posted above in Dec 2015. Hunter did have ear hematoma again in both ears this summer. The vet convinced me to use steroids instead. 4 days of steroids and all was gone.
> 
> This time I paid attention to the symptoms more,closely. The skin around,Hunter's eyes got red and irritated. He started rolling the side of his head on the ground. That's when I checked his ears and they were faintly,swelling a tiny bit. So I started the steroids this time. His ears started to swell. But after 4 days the swelling was gone. So now I'll be using steroids. never thought that would work!


Ruby had a hematoma in one ear. We went to the vet several times to have it drained, and eventually the vet re-injected a cortisone solution into the cavity after draining it. Two days later, the thing had gone and never came back. It left a slightly thickened ridge on the ear that you wouldn't know was there unless you touched it. If ever one of my dogs gets another hematoma, I'll be asking for this to be done again.


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Barkley*



Max Volt said:


> [original poster] It's been a year now since Barkley had the ear hematoma and the drain placed in his ear. I am happy to report that all is well. It seems to have healed up perfectly I can't really tell which ear was affected, not visually nor by touching his the ears and comparing them. The plastic drain placed in the ear and held by stitches really worked for us and the cost was quite reasonable. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if the need arose.


So glad to hear about Barkley!!


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