I have an 11 month old boxer who likes to play rough with other dogs
at the dog park. Doing so, he has torn little chunks out of the
bottom of his right ear. I can not seem to get his ear to heal, he is
constantly tearing off the scabs while playing and it just seems to
pretty much stay an open wound. Does anyone have any suggestions on
allowing this to heal? Even when not around other dogs he still keeps
the wound open by shaking his head and hitting his ears on things
around the house. Any suggestions???

Well lets see when a dog tears it's ear it's kinda like us cutting our
scalp. It will bleed and bleed and breed until we get stitches in it or it
is rapped in a way to gently apply pressure to help it clot. Ears will
continue to do this until something nasty like a aural hematoma forms. The
symptoms of an aural hematoma are obvious. Depending on the severity of the
problem there will be swelling, sometimes extensive. Almost every pet will
either be holding the head to one side or either shaking and pawing at the
affected side. This can be caused by a dog constantly shaking it's head from
another injury or infection. The swelling is due to blood vessels that have
ruptured inside the ear flap, between the inside and outside layer of
cartilage. This causes the ear to fill up with bloody fluid and after a
period of time the blood in the ear clots and there is a firm swelling. If
left untreated the ear will be painful and will eventually scar down similar
in appearance to a cauliflower ear.

So you really need to take your dog to the vet to have this checked out
maybe rapped so the dog can not shake the ear around and reopen the wounds
or cause a hematoma to form. It may be as simple as a few days rapped or
several weeks of an Elizabethan collar.



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oups.com...
I have an 11 month old boxer who likes to play rough with other dogs
at the dog park. Doing so, he has torn little chunks out of the
bottom of his right ear. I can not seem to get his ear to heal, he is
constantly tearing off the scabs while playing and it just seems to
pretty much stay an open wound. Does anyone have any suggestions on
allowing this to heal? Even when not around other dogs he still keeps
the wound open by shaking his head and hitting his ears on things
around the house. Any suggestions???

It might sound a bit crazy but have you tried crazy glue? Ears are big
bleeders and hard as hell to heal but crazy glue works.

I had a doberman years ago who had a tear in his ear. The tear had healed
but then later on my cat and him were playing my cat bit him in the same
ear. Not a huge bite just one tiny puncture but it bled and let me tell you
talk about blood it wasn't no tiny amount either. I went home the night it
happened and it looked like a slaughter happened in my kitchen. No matter
what we did he kept getting it opened and it would bleed. We tried wraps
he'd just tear them off. I bought the clotting powder you use for livestock
even and tried it. We even drugged him for two weeks trying to keep him
calm. This was an ongoing thing for over two months. As a last ditch
effort my vet told me to crazy glue it that she had read about it in a
journal.

Finally we got the bleeding stopped with the use the crazy glue. The glue
was finally the patch over the hole that would hold up to his shaking and
carrying in. As the ear healed I kept applying it every couple days. As it
would wear away I would add more to the spot never quite letting it get to
the point where there was no glue and it would begin to bleed again. It
took almost a month of this and he lost most the hair in that spot but it
finally healed.

The hair grew back and he was good as new. It's not an experience I'd ever
want to repeat!!!!!

Celeste


wrote in message
oups.com...
I have an 11 month old boxer who likes to play rough with other dogs
at the dog park. Doing so, he has torn little chunks out of the
bottom of his right ear. I can not seem to get his ear to heal, he is
constantly tearing off the scabs while playing and it just seems to
pretty much stay an open wound. Does anyone have any suggestions on
allowing this to heal? Even when not around other dogs he still keeps
the wound open by shaking his head and hitting his ears on things
around the house. Any suggestions???

Celeste,

I actually was contemplating using super glue, I have heard of it
being used for medical reasons. Right now I found some large bandaids
and the one i placed on his ear stayed on for 24hours so I'm going to
continue putting those on with neosporine, but if it doesn't seem to
work I will definitely try the super glue. It does not seem to bother
him at all, but blood getting everywhere he goes isn't much fun.
Thanks for the response,

Andrew

The solution to the problem is liquid BandAid. It works great,
doesn't stick to your fingers, stops bleeding immediately, and keeps
the would sealed.