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My dog had an ear hematoma. Can he be active without it returning?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | American Bulldog | 10 years and 4 months old

Our dog, Sarge, had an aural hematoma, which was aspirated and wrapped since it was small. Our vet wrapped it too tightly, causing necrosis. As the dead tissue sloughed, the hematoma essentially drained itself, and our vet has been debriding the dead tissue as needed. Since the hematoma is no longer there, will our dog be able to go back to normal activity without worry that it will return? His original hematoma was caused by his ear hitting the coffee table whIle shaking

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on April 9th, 2018

Now that Sarge's hematoma has gone, it's fine for him to resume normal activity, but unfortunately there is no guarantee that he will not develop another one over time. Hopefully it won't happen, but it is common for aural hematoma to reoccur after being drained. It may be different in this case because there was necrosis involved, but only time will tell if he develops another one later in life. Do not let that possibility keep him from having normal activity. There are many dogs who have aural hematomas that are successful treated and do not happen again. I hope this helps!

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Our dog has an aural hematoma on the tip of his ear which was caused by hitting it on our coffee table after a quick head shake. We have had it aspirated 3 times, and are now considering surgery. He is 10 years old, with 2 spinal surgeries in the p
Hello, thank you for using Boop by Petco. So sorry Sarge is having this issue. You are correct, the recovery from the hematoma surgery is long - like 3 to 4 weeks - and the hematoma can return. I would not consider the surgery or the post-op portion to be overly painful, just very uncomfortable. There is no way to know what will happen unfortunately. It would be great if we all had crystal balls! Hematomas will often resolve on their own if they are small. If the hematoma is large then it is less likely and surgery is needed. Hematomas do take a long time to resolve on their own (usually months). Of course it will never resolve if he keeps traumatizing the ear by shaking his head or scratching at it. If this is a problem, you may want to consider getting him an ear sock (SurgiSox) to protect the earflap. It looks a bit silly but it really helps. ( https://www.dogleggs.com/surgi-sox-aural-compression-bandage/ ) I would not say there are any health risks associated with leavin
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My cat had an ear hematoma about a year ago. It was drained and sutured. She was in a cone and stitches for about 2 weeks or so. It has healed and she has scar tissue on that ear but overall fine. She has been shaking her head with an ear infection a
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My dog had a hematoma in her left ear .The vet drained it 6 weeks ago and all was good except her ear remained down.tonight she started shaking her head side to side and is cocking her head to the the bad ear side.I checked her ear and no fluid has r
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What is the treatment of dog ear hematoma ? Also if it left untreated to heal on it's own on German shepherd dog I know it take long time to heal so after healing own it's own on the ears of German shepherd then after healing completely will my dogs
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So my poor Tanky Tank has a hematoma in his ear. The vet said we could treat it with Prednisone and bring him back in two weeks to check him out. We may have it drained at that time. My husband took him to the vet, I had to pick the kids. His ear won
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