Aural Hematoma

[BullyLady]

Anyone here dealt with them? It would seem Shelby, the allergy girl, has one.
"Luckily" it's a small one, her whole ear hasn't blown up yet. But considering
that I just got laid off yesterday that was really super awesome new to get today.

[Malli]

Um, I've seen a lot of them dealt with, and I know the theory of the procedure and aftercare
My only own dog hasn't had one though.

[BullyLady]

It's a very small one at the base of her pinna (close to her head).

What are your thoughts on aspiration vs. quilting?

[Malli]

I hear the aspiration is iffy, I've seen it done once or twice but my impression was the Doc wanted to do a larger incision and the quilting, that the aspiration was a "it might work and its cheaper and the client doesn't have the $" type thing.

I've honestly never seen a small one, maybe it would be easier to deal with because its smaller? Maybe they could just use a little pain control and a couple Lidocaine nerve blocks and do it that way without anesthetic? If Shelby is good...

Did it really come up that quickly or do her ears always bother her a little?

Sort of OT, but have you heard of Dermapet Malacetic Otic? I use it on Oscar's ears and LOVE it - the smell is decent and it seems to clean without drying.

[plebayo]

Most people opt to have the doctor drain it with a syringe, we usually give a dose of cortisone as well to help calm itching. Most dogs who get aural hematomas get them due to excessive head shaking and ear scratching.

Option two is placing a drain and allowing the thing to drain until it heals.

Option three I've seen only once and it had to do with lancing, draining, and putting a ton of stitches in the ear flap.

If the dog will let you I'd just poke it with a syringe and drain it whenever it fills up, if you leave it it'll just reabsorb and scar up, so not a huge deal either. Since Shelby has allergies getting the ears under control, if that is the problem would be really helpful.

[pocketpit]

If its' small you can leave it and let it reabsorb but only if you can keep her from shaking or digging at her ears. Otherwise it'll get bigger fairly quickly.
In my experience draining with a needle doesn't work well, they usually refill pretty quickly. But again if it's pretty small maybe that wouldn't be the case.
We typically quilt them at work which of course works well but is costly unless you can do it under a local anesthetic.

[Marinepits]

Option two is placing a drain and allowing the thing to drain until it heals.

This is what I've seen used most often. I've only seen the quilting once and it was pretty neat.

Sort of OT, but have you heard of Dermapet Malacetic Otic? I use it on Oscar's ears and LOVE it - the smell is decent and it seems to clean without drying.

This stuff rocks!

[BullyLady]

I hear the aspiration is iffy, I've seen it done once or twice but my impression was the Doc wanted to do a larger incision and the quilting, that the aspiration was a "it might work and its cheaper and the client doesn't have the $" type thing.

I've honestly never seen a small one, maybe it would be easier to deal with because its smaller? Maybe they could just use a little pain control and a couple Lidocaine nerve blocks and do it that way without anesthetic? If Shelby is good...

Did it really come up that quickly or do her ears always bother her a little?

Sort of OT, but have you heard of Dermapet Malacetic Otic? I use it on Oscar's ears and LOVE it - the smell is decent and it seems to clean without drying.

Alright, that kind of confirms all that I was thinking.

I haven't ever seen a small one either, I've only ever seen it when the WHOLE ear is huge. But this is literally like a quarter sized hematoma.

I have heard of Malacetic Otic, and I am definitely going to get some at the vet's cause I do remember that that stuff works like magic. I wish I had thought of that earlier!

Shelby seems to have allergies. I suspect it's food allergies because she started flapping her ears (we call her helicopter dog) about a week after she went off raw food and back onto kibble. However, that also coincided with the beginning of warm weather/allergy season so I won't know for another two months or so (when all the pollen in the air is gone) which one it is.

[Malli]

I'm pretty sure you could use the Malacetic weekly if you wanted, that might help the itching They also make it with a steroid, wich would really help the itching.

[BullyLady]

Well, she had her vet visit today. We aren't going to do surgery on the hematoma. It's small enough that her doc said we should just let it reabsorb and heal up on it's own. I'm a little sad about that, though, she's going to get a cauliflower ear. Her ear canals are totally clear, not inflamed at all, and no infections at all, so I just got Gentizol to rub on her pinnas twice a day. There is a staph infection on her belly so she's in cephalexin. And then of course pred to get the itching down, I hadn't wanted to do steroids but she really does need them, the poor girl is just so itchy! She has been having allergy problems all summer, her vet thinks she may have gotten bit by some insect that she is allergic to and that's what made her kind of explode like this.

My poor itchy baby, I hate allergies.

[Marinepits]

Glad to hear she's slowly getting better. Pred sucks.

My poor itchy baby, I hate allergies.

Me, too! Mac's had his ears deep-cleaned twice in two days and he's NOT happy with me right now.

[Malli]

I'd be upset about the cauliflower ear, too.

Oscar also has allergies, and is long term on Pred, the last time I tried to wean him off(over 1 year ago), he started scratching himself raw

[BullyLady]

I'd be upset about the cauliflower ear, too.

Oscar also has allergies, and is long term on Pred, the last time I tried to wean him off(over 1 year ago), he started scratching himself raw

Is there any reason that you use pred over Temaril-P? If this turns into a long term thing I am going to ask my vet if what the differences are. At least until I can afford Atopica.

[Malli]

Honestly, I've never heard of it Not one Vet I've ever met (and I've met a few, probably like 30, ) has ever mentioned it, I don't think I've ever given it to any of the patients at the hospital either, but I'm going to research it and learn more about it and get back to you!

[Malli]

Oh, so it looks kind of like Vanectyl P...

Oscar's pred dose is low, like below the low end dose for allergies, so this is probably why, because of the combination of the meds and the fact that he only needs a "sniff" of it, but thats my guess. In the past he has been on Vanectyl P, but that was when he was really itchy.

on a second look, it looks like the temaril and vanectyl are exactly the same thing, just different brand names.
http://www.camroseanimalclinic.ca/vanectyl-p.html

[BullyLady]

So exactly how low of a dose is he on? It's starting to look like pred might be a part of our daily life with this pupper.

[Malli]

Oscar is approx 75 lbs and takes 5 mg SID

The dose range for Pred. is wide, on a quick web search I could find .1 to 3 mg/lb depending on the condition being treated (this sounds about right from what I remember when I looked it up at the Vet Hosp.) and so Oscar's lowest dose is tecnically 7.5 mg SID, and from what I remember about discussing with my Vet I think his dose range for allergic dogs is .2 mg/lb and up...

so ya, its low; but the last time we tapered to 2.5 mg he got SO itchy.

I still don't like it. I'm not sure that the affects of it long term are fully known, or the affects of the different dose range

I'm kind of on the fence because its either go off it and 1) face further skin infections and their itchiness that comes along with them,
2)face more antibiotics wich he seems to handle less and less well, and hasn't taken in -touch wood- probably at least 6-8 months wich is really good for him,
and 3) wich really is worse, long term low dose Pred or more frequent AB's (for a while there it was almost every other month) and future higher doses of Pred that simply get tapered.

I've come to the conclusion though that every allergy dog is different, after learning what I learned about Oscar's skin and baths (they may be indicated but man does it make him worse! He'll scratch more after a bath then before! And the skin infections are less so since I cut them back), yet I know of other dogs that have a bath and it all clears up.

[DropkickPA]

My old golden had *bad* allergies (he was even allergic to grass) and he ended up with the classic big ol' balloon ear hematoma, which we drained 2x and just ended up quilting under a local when it kept blowing up. That dog was so laid back he'd let anyone do anything to him so long as he was getting a belly rub at the same time.

[BullyLady]

That dog was so laid back he'd let anyone do anything to him so long as he was getting a belly rub at the same time.

Well, at least if he had to have ear problems he was laid back about it! It is taking both of us to rub the Gentizol on Shelby's pinnas, which is weird because I can even do her nails by myself. The poor girl, they must be really hurting her.

[DropkickPA]

That dog was so laid back he'd let anyone do anything to him so long as he was getting a belly rub at the same time.

Well, at least if he had to have ear problems he was laid back about it! It is taking both of us to rub the Gentizol on Shelby's pinnas, which is weird because I can even do her nails by myself. The poor girl, they must be really hurting her.

Aww, poor Shelby, her ears must really be sore! I hope they start to feel better soon!

I used to be able to do a deep ear flush on Amos with barely a twitch, too. He was an odd bird. We could also vacuum him with a push vacuum so long as we didn't do his junk, so he was a *very* chill dog indeed. If we accidently ran over his junk, he got up and walked away