[Dailydrool] Basset Ears and Hematoma

[Dan Hickey]

In November 2008 my male, Diamond, developed a hematoma in his right ear. I
know how it happened, he banged into a crate. The pocket of blood was about
half the area of his ear. There was no ear infection or fungus and very
little gunk in his ears. I had the vet drain the hematoma, but the pocket
filled back up with blood in 2 days. Next I drained it myself and I made a
"press" to try and get the ear to bond together, along with a tight snood.
No luck. I finally had to have it stitched up ($750). His ear looked like an
oven mitt for about 6 weeks but the repair has held and the ear looks like
it did before.

A week ago, for no apparent reason, the left ear flap was full of blood. The
ear canals are cleaner than they have ever been. Neither time did the Vet
have the ($$$) ear infection to treat and blame it on. Wiser now, we went
straight into surgery.

He is fine and we have another oven mitt. Diamond is hurting and feeling
sorry for himself. He also will miss obedience competition at our Specialty
show in March, no jumping for a month.

So my questions to the Drool: Is this common with Bassets? Was there
anything I could have done to prevent this? Is two ears and two operations
the end for this boy, or could it happen again?

Dan Hickey