Bloody, bitten ear?

[TheRedQueen]

Inara nailed Score in the ear today while playing ball...(bitch).

It's mainly just scratched, it's not open, torn or ripped at all...but it's bleedin' like a @$*@#& .

Any suggestions on getting the bleeding under control?

I've cleaned it, which opened up the clotted blood...to see how bad it is. I then put some Buddy Boo-boo on it, which I use on all of their wounds (it's got Tea Tree oil...and it works so well!). Poor guy has blood all over his neck and head...I keep wiping it up, but the ear keeps bleeding. It's not bugging him at all...he's not even upset when I clean it.

[BigDogBuford]

On floppy eared dogs I always tape the ear to the head so that when they shake it doesn't get it bleeding again....they look funny but it works!

[kera09]

oh no!!! poor boy!! tape gauze around his ear and hold pressure to it???

[Marinepits]

On floppy eared dogs I always tape the ear to the head so that when they shake it doesn't get it bleeding again....they look funny but it works!

Absolutely. The key is to get him to stop shaking his head, however you have to do it.

Please be very careful -- the ears contain tons of blood vessels and dogs can easily bleed way too much to be healthy for them. If he keeps bleeding regardless of how you try to stop it, get him to a vet to get stitched up.

When Mac was a puppy, he nailed Indy in the ear and tore it open from mid-ear to tip. Indy was literally gushing blood all over the basement. Of course he was shaking his head and we had blood splatter up the walls and onto the ceiling. While running Indy to Dr Blabs, I called Steve to let him know what happened. When he got home, he was shocked at the amount of blood that was EVERYWHERE. Indy ended up getting a mess of stitches and now has a notch in his ear, LOL. His nickname was ARGH! for a while.

[plebayo]

Quik Stop! You know... for nails.

I had a chicken who was scalped by a duck but not all the way and her comb was hanging off... I had to cut it off and I packed it with quik stop it formed a scab and fell off months later. Worked very well for the bleeding, and it bled a LOT.

Also when shaving Sofie when she was much younger and didn't hold still I cut her ear and packed it with quik stop and it stopped the bleeding. I agree the key is to keep the dog from shaking but packing it with quik stop or even starch from your kitchen will at least get the bleeding under control.

[Marinepits]

If you don't have Quik Stop or corn starch, you can also try white flour.

[plebayo]

If you don't have Quik Stop or corn starch, you can also try white flour.

Yeah that too! I was going to say that as well but I wasn't sure if flour worked or not but I was sure I had heard it before...

[Marinepits]

Doesn't work *as* well, in my experience, but works in a pinch.

[TheRedQueen]

On floppy eared dogs I always tape the ear to the head so that when they shake it doesn't get it bleeding again....they look funny but it works!

Absolutely. The key is to get him to stop shaking his head, however you have to do it.

Please be very careful -- the ears contain tons of blood vessels and dogs can easily bleed way too much to be healthy for them. If he keeps bleeding regardless of how you try to stop it, get him to a vet to get stitched up.

There's nothing to be stitched...it really is just a deep scrape on the inner part of his ear on the outside edge...so I'm not worried about that. No puncture/tear/rip at all...just a long scrape that's bad...just bleedy.

He's been quiet tonight, so it's clotted...I'm afraid he'll work his way out of a bandage...and make more of a mess. I'll get the Quik Stop out of the van if I need it later.

Thanks everyone!

[madremissy]

Aww poor Score's ear. Hopefully it will heal up soon.

[BigDogBuford]

I just use tape, no bandage. I don't actually *bandage* the ear just tape it to the head.

We had to get very creative when Joxer had the ends of his ears cropped as no bandage on earth would stay on him. In fact the bandage the vet put on him fell off in the car half way home. Joxer seems to like to shake more than any other dog I've had so taping his ears to his head was what we came up with after weeks of trying different stuff out.

Hope it heals up quickly!

[TheRedQueen]

So far so good today, it's all clotted and looks just fine. I'm afraid he'll shake his head more if he has tape on it , so I'm just leaving it alone, except for applying more ointment.

[blabsforbullies]

Yeah, in those cases it isn't so much that stitch the pieces back together, per se. It is more of a ligation of vessels that otherwise won't stop bleeding. There is a vein that runs along the entire edge of the ear called the marginal vein. That thing rarely stops bleeding on it's own.

I hope all is well from here on out!

[TheRedQueen]

Yeah, in those cases it isn't so much that stitch the pieces back together, per se. It is more of a ligation of vessels that otherwise won't stop bleeding. There is a vein that runs along the entire edge of the ear called the marginal vein. That thing rarely stops bleeding on it's own.

I hope all is well from here on out!

Thanks for the info, Dr. B!

Score's ear is fine...everything healed up, and scabs are about to fall off...thanks for everyone's help!

...herding dogs suck! Inara also nailed Xander in the face the same week she got Score's ear. Nippy little bitch!