The ear may fill back up with fluid and it may be helpful to have your vet recheck your dog every 2-3 days, to see if the fluid needs to be drained again. There are some risks associated with the draining. That may be something that your veterinarian recommends, even with this local corticosteroid infusion method. Some pets, especially those who are fearful, anxious or stressed, may actually do better with sedation, anyway. I will often use lidocaine, on top of the skin, to numb where I’m going to make my poke, but honestly, it’s a very small needle and most animals don’t react when we place it in there. And for the majority of animals with hematomas, this procedure is really well-tolerated. There’s no sedation or anesthesia needed. There are lots of benefits to this particular method. Thank you, Russell Sprout, my own personal allergic dog. This may or may not have been published research, but it’s my personal experience that the majority of ear infections develop at 2:00 AM, when you’re trying to sleep and your dog starts whacking its ears back and forth like a windmill. Ashley Bourgeois (from The Derm Vet) does a great explanation on what cytology is (in episode 46) and how it helps us to be able to provide relief. Meagan Painter (from The Allergic Dog) just did several discussions on ear infections, so if you haven’t already, take a moment to go back and listen to episodes 44 and 45, if you really want to learn more about understanding the primary ear disease and how to get control of the ear infections. So it’s really important for your vet to be able to diagnose and treat those infections. Over 2/3 of dogs with aural hematomas also have secondary ear infections with either bacteria or yeast, or combination of the two. Basically, something makes these dogs shake their heads (sometimes just mildly, because of fragile cartilage to begin with), and when that cartilage breaks, the fluid has no place to go except between the cartilage and the skin, creating this squishy, painful bulge in the ear. There may be an underlying component to how fragile the cartilage in the ear flap is because it’s the breaks and the cartilage that trigger that fluid to start building up. What type of dog is going to be the most likely to really do some damage to their ear flaps when they’re whacking their heads back and forth because their ears are bothering them? The majority of these dogs that had aural hematomas were over 18 kilograms (40 lbs). In one study, 80% of dogs with aural hematomas had pendulous (long and floppy) ears. The most common place for this to occur is the ear flap, also known as the pinna. And that’s why it’s so important, for part of our treatment plan, to include bringing down the inflammation so that there’s less fluid being made. Most often, the fluid that collects in the ear is usually just inflammatory fluid mixed in with some blood, giving it that bloody color. In this situation, it’s not exactly blood. So an aural hematoma is a swelling of blood in the ear. It sounds like ‘oral,’ meaning the mouth, but this is ‘au’ instead of ‘o.’ Hematoma means a swelling made up of blood. And I want to give you some definitions, so that you can follow along. An aural hematoma is a buildup of bloody fluid within the ear flap.
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