I've decided that since having labradors I've learned more about the bizarre things that can occur )& the resulting conversations with my friendly vet) than I did in 30 years with Tibetan Terriers (although they're trying to keep up but that's another story!)

About three weeks ago I let dh's labs out first thing in the morning to discover that one had a raised ear.  On closer inspection I discovered it was swollen.  Admittedly I thought it was the result of a wasp sting or similar.  Was very surprised to learn that it was in fact from shaking his head violently over night due to an ear infection.  The shaking had caused the flap to fill with blood.  Vet & nurse were covered in blood by the time we left!  Since then it's refilled, been lanced, filled with puss & is now, very slowly healing. 

I always feel so guilty when something like this happens, but his ears had been cleaned recently & he showed no signs of discomfort the night before....

A friend's GR suffered from this earlier in the summer and it took quite a few repeat procedures to get it sorted - he kept shaking his head and it kept refilling, twice becoming infected.  Thankfully for both he made a full recovery but it was amazing how quickly the flap refilled - almost before our eyes

Hope your's is fully on the mend too :)
regards, Teri

Anton suffered with this about 2 years ago, was fine the day before got home from work at the night time and he came up to me with his ear in a very weird shape, luckily the one lancing at the vets worked and as I've put previously since starting him on a partial BARF diet I've never had the problem again since.

Am i right in thinking this is a hematoma? One of mine had this, her ear never looked the same again! :-(

This happened to our gordon setter earlier this year, it was in a really awkward position too right at the top covering about a quarter of her ear flap. She had it drained but it refilled, the vet felt it should be left as it would just refill. After about a week it went down and she is absolutely fine with no signs it was ever there. Yes it is called a Haematoma.

Our old dog used to get recurrent aural haemotomas like this. His ears ended up very scarred from where they had to be opened up and drained each time.

Vets used to get a better long term result from bandaging the ears on top of the head with a crepe bandage rather than surgery - not sure why the treatment has changed?

The earflap had to be drained before the ear was bandaged to the top of the head - at least that's how it was done in the 1960s.

Will mention bandaging to the vet if it keeps re-occuring.  She said if it didn't improve long term they would have to operate (which was a little concerning!)

He's on the BARF diet anyway - just think it was a minor ear infection that got out of hand :-(

It may sound far-fetched, but I know of someone who had the same problem, and the vet used leeches (yes, honestly!) to drain the blood away. Not sure how expensive it was, but the dog recently placed in a championship show group.