One of my girls has a large hematoma in ear from excessive shaking. We know the route cause and it is being treated. BUT....even though the vet drained the golf ball sized blood pocket and injected a steroid into it - the gap is filling up again. Not as quickly or as big yet but it is coming back. Her ear has fallen and we have been told it will never stand again. The vet also said she may need surgery to cut it open and allow to drain before stitching it and this could result in cauliflower ear....thoughts? experience? advice? I want her ear to stand again - I know it makes no difference health wise but I won't be able to show her.... :(

Probably not much help to you, but I thought worth a mention. 

My Staffordshire had a fairly large haematoma (not as big as golf ball sized though :()on one of his ears, which after 3 attempts of draining still filled up.  In the end, after the last draining attempt, I looked at other options and every day bathed his ear several times with chilled witch hazel liquid, and then applied arnica cream several times too.

Now it may be complete coincidence, but the haematoma did reduce and his ear went back to normal.  I can feel some scar tissue and lumpiness on his ear however.

Not much consolation to you, but as I said, thought I would mention.  Best of luck.

From what someone I know was told leaving it is more likely to produce cauliflower ear draining and securing with a button used to be the way to resolve .he had his dogs operated on and u really wouldn't know however this wasn't a prick eared dog which may make a difference

the vet has basically said that they will drain it up to 3 times and then surgery to leave a drain in to dry it up and leave it pen and stitch slowly. it will leave scar tissue and the ear won't stand again. If I drain it can I strap it like they do with pups to try and get it upright again? Also I have working knowledge on using the  syringes - can I get them and do it myself? I know it would be less traumatic for her....

Ask the vet about the old fashioned way of doing it where they drain then sew a button on it to stop it refilling . It used to work . If the cratiigae is going t damaged I can imagine strapping will help but if the cartilage is intact its worth a try. have just had a look at various methods on  google ,might be worth you doing some investigating as there does seem to be different methods. At least then you can have a full discussion

We had this in one of our B.H's a couple of years ago, because of the leather size ear was very swollen. Vet did drain it once but from what I can recall had begun to swell by late that evening, even with attempts to keep ear up!
Very different ears but decision was soon made for surgery as it was painful and getting larger by the day. It was messy as someone kindly advised me here, 2 1/2" - 3" incision which was left unstitched so it could drain with lots of stitches around & down the leather. Healed well, but vet insisted with the size of leather that he would leave stitches in as long as possible & if during check up's with other vets (if he was not around) not to let them be taken out! Think they were in for over six weeks & he said it was a learning curve with B.H's & that next time he would place more stitches towards the tip. I doubt if it's noticeable until you lift his ear, obvious scar but for him & me the only problem has been - if you can call it that - is that his inner ear (sorry for lack of proper terms) is a little smaller, possibly due to the swelling but I can't get my finger in as I once could for cleaning. Otherwise had no further problems, sorry can't remember how long it took to heal but dripped for days.

it must vary how vets operate as the one I am thinking of that was done a couple of months ago had the op and stitches , no dripping or mess and that was that .

> Ask the vet about the old fashioned way of doing it where they drain then sew a button on it to stop it refilling . It used to work .

Sure did - I worked in a small show/breeding/boarding kennel in Canada where they bred GSDs and Kuvacz and more often than once she had the button treatment done with her Sheps.

Hi, Not sure if this will help but my good friend has always had Danes and some more prone to haematomas than others. She has had some success with bathing the ears with a solution of lavender oil. The haem can come up so quickly though. I have seen us settle the dogs in the morning, go out and see to the horses, then come back to a 'blood bath' when one of the dogs had developed a haematoma in a couple of hours, shook it's head and it burst. Blood everywhere! The lavender oil bathing helped heal it up quickly though.

Ok, daft question.... What causes a haematoma?

Shaking their heads and banging ears most commonly. It's like a very bad bruise tjat doesn't break the skin but there is so much.blood it takes ages to absorb and stopping it splitting and then bleeding o's very hard.ears being so difficult amyway

Thanks FF, never encountered one before (long may it remain that way!) sounds like a scalp wound in a human, they always bleed like mad.

With ours although ears not particularly long for a BH, the hematoma gradually sunk down to the tip pealing apart the ear like a pocket & filling up behind. Which is why the ear was covered with stitches & left for as long as possible to hopefully bind the two sides back together, which thankfully they did.

I am sure i know someone who's lab had this and the vet used leeches to take the swelling out and it all healed without stitches.  I remember we all laughed about it because it was so mediaeval - 3 leeches the first day then one a day for a number of days then every other day - basically as needed to keep the swelling down while it healed back together.

Our vet is determined to leave it stitched as long as possible and said it would be a long and painful process. I really want to avoid it if at all possible. She is a pain to keep still. At 8 months old she had to have a calcium deposit removed from her heel and removed every stitch even though she was wearing the cone of shame! It was such an awkward wound with very little flesh to stitch together in the first place and she ended up having to have it stapled and then re-stitched.

I got the needles yesterday and am going to attempt to drain it myself. Someone mentioned colloidal silver to me - any ideas if this might be useful?

I don't think anyone will leech and these new vets seem clueless about the button method :(

My nephew's dog was treated earlier this year with the button method so other vets are using it still. Would it be worth while phoning round some other surgeries and seeing if any of them use that method? If you want to try to keep the ear upright for showing it would be worth travelling.

I shall look into it - thank you. It isn't just a cosmetic thing so I am determined to try and keep the ear up. Will ring around. We changed vet after the whole 'your bitch needs a c section now!' fiasco to some very highly recommended vets but I am so far, rather disappointed.....

Friend with dobes also had the button sewn on method.

Collidal silver is certainly worth using being an antibacterial it often helps healing. I have  a spray which I used recently when one of mine managed to pull her whole nail from the nail bed. We stopped the bleeding and then used just cs , it healed very well with no other help. Cant lose by trying . I also have some activon to help heal wounds its medical grade manuka honey . Ive heard good things but so far I haven't needed to use it

My lot would be awful with honey as the others wouldn't stop worrying it on her behalf!

I have drained it myself today. I used the biggest syringe they had and filled it 3 times so it 300 units. She was happy to let me do it and I shall watch to see how long it takes to refill. I also used the silver and put a couple of sprays on the flap. Didn't rub it in or anything but she didn't shake her head afterwards either so was happy with the whole procedure. Had 3 pups go today and another going tomorrow. The remaining 3 are the pets and 1 is staying till september due to pre booked holiday and other 2 are going to france (separate families) so will stay until cleared to travel. Hopefully will have more time to ring round tomorrow and see what's out there...

If the ear isn't covered I would keep spraying here and there as well .as for honey yes that is a problem if tje dog doesn't lick the wound d itself because it tastes nice

I rang around today to various practices and none of them will use the button method - all suggested draining and suturing. The problem I have with drains is that the other dogs will oblige to help her pull them out.

I drained the area myself yesterday and although it is puffy today there doesn't seem to be any more fluid in there. What if I had a go at strapping the ear? As they do to help pup's ears stand in the states or with cropped ears? Could I use the card and tampon method?

Can't see it would hurt but u need to be able to see what's going in with the haematoma

I think I would strap and then re-do every 2-3 days? or I could wait a couple of days, see how it gets on and then strap it....

See how it goes is my feeling