Poor Tucker!

So our yellow lab, Tucker, has had quite the past 3 weeks. He has been struggling with an "ear hematoma". For those of you that are not familiar with these...

Docotor definition: An Aural Hematoma is a collection of blood under the skin of the ear flap of a dog or cat. Ear hematoma occurs much more commonly in dogs than in cats; a hematoma generally is the result of trauma to the ear flap from an injury or from the dog or cat scratching at the ear. The itchy ear can result from ear mites, allergies, infections or foreign matter in the ear canal. Frequent scratching at the ear, or even vigorous shaking of the head, can result in a rupture of small blood vessels beneath the skin of the pinna. Since there is little strength or depth to the tissues of the ear flap, clotting may be delayed... especially if the dog or cat continues to upset the clotting by additional self trauma.

Tucker has had chronic ear infections almost his entire 8 years on this planet. This is the first time this hematoma thing has happened. My cousin, Cori, is a Veterinarian in Sacremento, so she told me exactly how to drain his ear and what antibiotics to give him. Since I work in a doctors office, I had access to all the supplies we needed. So each night for about a week, Brian and I would hold Tucker down on the kitchen floor and drain his ear...yes, I stuck a SCALPEL into his ear! We thought it was going to be fixed in no time at all. But each time we did it, it would be filled back up again by the next morning. So after phone calls to my cousin and to numerous vet hospitals, our only option was to take him in for surgery this morning.

Breanna and I dropped Tucker off at the Banfield Pet Hospital (located inside Petsmart) at 7am this morning. We picked him up tonight after work. He looked like a drunk walking around, running in to the wall at home, or just STARING at the wall. He will be on quite the concoction of medications for the next 10 days also. We have to take him back in every 3 days so they can change his bandage. All 30 (yes, 30!) stitches will come out in 2 weeks.

Here are some pictures of our guy from tonight after we got home.



For anyone that needs a new Vet or if youever have to take your dog to the hospital...I HIGHLY recommend Banfield!