Puppy ear cut: What should I do if my puppy's ear is accidentally cut?

Question

My husband accidentally sliced a chunk off of the outside of our puppy's ear while removing an old post before re-posting. We have cleaned it with antiseptic and have gauze over it at the moment. He cut off the hair and a good amount of skin. How should we proceed? Pet's info: Dog | Doberman Pinscher | Male | unneutered | 2 months and 23 days old | 95 lbs

Kevin Sanada, DVM · Accepted Answer

I think it will be fine to try and treat this at home for now (even though we don't know the cause), but would recommend a visit to the vet if: 1) It doesn't get better in 2 weeks 2) It starts to get worse or have a lot of discharge. Keeping the wound clean and keeping it covered are the key treatments for success in getting this wound to heal as soon as possible. For this, I recommend the following: 1) Wash/spray the area with just cool, clean water (no soap or other antiseptics) for at least 2 minutes at a time. Do this once a day. 2) Bandage the wound with gauze and apply an over-the-counter antibacterial cream (i.e Neosporin) to the wound. Here is a link to a good demonstration of a head bandage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3c-SXhUSBY Keeping it covered and keeping Indiana from pulling it off will be the most difficult part of the treatment. You can help keep the bandage on by placing a good (really sticky) tape above and below the bandage. NOTE: Be careful not to bandage too tight or it can cut-off the circulation. If you notice that the neck/chin area start to swell, then remove the bandage and leave it off until the swelling goes down. These types of lesions tend to take a while to heal, so don't be surprised if its not completely healed until a month later. Once the skin looks normal you can stop the cleaning/bandaging. I hope that helps and Indiana gets better soon.

Puppy ear cut: What should I do if my puppy's ear is accidentally cut?

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