Dutch Shepherd Forum

Odin's best doggie friend Brazil (one of my good friend's malinois) recently just got surgery for a hematoma in her ear. The vet said it was 40%, but since she was already scheduled for a spay 2 days after it appeared, they had her in surgery pretty quickly. They did what she called the swiss cheese method where they cut holes in the ear with a laser for drainage tacked the ear, and stitched them up.

Right now it's been 5 days and the ear is showing no signs of standing. She's taped tampons in to help absorb the drainage and prop the ear up a bit, but it looks like it's going to stay floppy forever now. She's 5 years old. Anyone have any experience with this?

awwwwwww the poor girl. I dont have any advice, just hugs.

I have seen mixed results. Some stand after the surgery and some don't.

I would watch how much weight the bandage is adding to the ear, perhaps pulling it down while it heals. I would wait until 7-10 days after surgery to worry too much. There is still a lot of trauma to the site. The goal, I would think, would be to help the scar tissue heal in a way that is most natural to the ear standing.

Dutchringgirl wrote:awwwwwww the poor girl. I dont have any advice, just hugs.

What's even worse is she doesn't take anesthesia or pain killers very well. She's very groggy right now and was vomiting everywhere for the first few days after surgery. Luckily they were able to do both surgeries at the same time. Moto, the little monkey on the milk crate is a typical 7 month old mal and can't understand why she's not playing and shouldn't be bothered. Odin can't play with her for a while and I think we need a backup playmate; playing with just Moto, without Brazil there to take the body slams, is too much for his grumpy butt.

Thanks for the advice Christie. It seems like the consensus is just to wait it out. The bandage seems to be ok for now, but the big plastic ecollar doesn't help. She won't stop shaking or scratching without it and the donut and fabric ecollars aren't working.

oh, wish we were close so Moto can play with my girls until she feels better !

Poor gal! I don't have any advice, I'm afraid. My only experience with a hematoma was my old GSD, Cory. Which was wayyy many years ago, and was pretty noneventful. She had a hematoma in her left ear when she was 4, it was a oblong, cigar-shaped blood packet, due to excessive digging at/scratching due to an ear infection. We got the infection cleared up and left the hematoma alone and it self-resolved with no surgery and no effects on the ear's ability to stand. I hope miss malligator feels better, soon!

I found this on YouTube a while back. I've really no experience with this area so I'm just passing on the information. Maybe it will help, maybe it won't.

Find also attached best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery.

https://www.youtube.com/user/JKDutchies

I don't know about dog ears with hematomas....our cat had one though. The vet went with a drain tube with a cap which we had to empty 2 times a day. His ear is flat on his head now and I just check it to be sure it's not getting infected since it doesn't get any air. We really didn't care though. He's just a house cat.