Aural (Ear) Hematoma II

The good news: Samson's 1st aural hematoma healed without any problems or deformities. :)

The bad news: Samson now has another one. Same ear.

We haven't taken Sam to the vet yet, but since we had some of the meds left over from last time, we're treating his ears for an infection and hoping that it fixes itself. We first noticed it three days ago, and it hasn't gotten any worse. The hematoma isn't as large as the first time he had it, and we're monitoring him closely to try to minimize how often he shakes his head.

We'll keep an eye on things for a few more days and hope that it starts to get a little smaller as the blood is reabsorbed into his body. If we continue to see no change in the size of the hematoma, we'll just have to take him back to the vet. We hate to do this because Sam is getting on in years (he'll be 8 in August), and we would really rather not risk putting him under anesthesia. We'll do whatever we have to do, though — Samson's health is priority #1.

Aural (Ear) Hematoma

We had to take Samson to the vet for an aural hematoma today. Apparently he had a mild yeast infection in both ears (likely due to his seasonal allergies) which caused him to shake his head enough to cause the hematoma in his ear. A hematoma is basically a pocket of blood that forms in the ear; it's usually caused by excessive head-shaking or by trauma to the ear. People who box often get ear hematomas too; it's what causes cauliflower ear. Samson's wasn't too bad. The vet had to drain the blood by using a syringe, and we were given meds to put in his ears to fix the yeast infection. If the hematoma fills back up, we'll have to consider fixing it with surgery. Hopefully that won't happen.

Sam on Thyroid Meds and Meloxicam

Just noticed this draft and figured I'd publish it. Based on the post title, I'm going to assume that this is when we first started Samson on his thyroid meds and meloxicam. (note added October 8, 2020)