He already has a pirate ear!
My poor pup. His ear is swollen to the size of a pear, as if his floppy ear were a water balloon or a whoopee cushion. Before panicking, Alex did a little research online and found that what he has is probably an aural hematoma. He probably popped a blood vessel in his ear scratching or shaking his ears like dogs do. His ear has turned into more or less a gigantic blood blister.
According to the online info, vets sometimes lance these, but they usually just fill with blood again. The other option is a very expensive and awful sounding surgery or waiting for it to get better on its own. Since he doesn't seem to be in any pain--he's behaving normally and let me examine his ear without showing any discomfort--I'm going to go the wait for it to get better route. They say the swelling should go down in a week or so, but his ear may always look shrivelled up or strange--kind of like a boxer getting cauliflower ear.
His other ear was torn a couple of years ago in a wrestling match with another dog. We call it his pirate ear. Now he's going to have a boxer ear too? Can't an already kind of ugly dog get a break?
According to the online info, vets sometimes lance these, but they usually just fill with blood again. The other option is a very expensive and awful sounding surgery or waiting for it to get better on its own. Since he doesn't seem to be in any pain--he's behaving normally and let me examine his ear without showing any discomfort--I'm going to go the wait for it to get better route. They say the swelling should go down in a week or so, but his ear may always look shrivelled up or strange--kind of like a boxer getting cauliflower ear.
His other ear was torn a couple of years ago in a wrestling match with another dog. We call it his pirate ear. Now he's going to have a boxer ear too? Can't an already kind of ugly dog get a break?