Found out your pet’s ear bleeding is somehow a scary experience. Trauma because of outside objects or bacteria/ fungal infection (which cause excessive itching on the ears, then make your dog stratches the itchy ear to the point of bleeding) are the common causes of ear bleeding. Polyps or the other masses which develop inside the ear or on the ear flap also have a possibility to bleed.
- Stop the bleeding
After you know where does the blood come from, the first thing you should do is stopping the blood from coming out. You can give a pressure directly on the site of bleeding use a soft and clean cloth, usually after 2 or 5 minutes, the bleeding is slowed down and stopped.
- Clean the wound/ injury
You can ask another person to hold the dog. After the bleeding has stopped, wash the wound with water and antibacterial soap. Then make a mixture of same amount of hydrogen peroxide and water. Apply the mixture using a cotton ball to the ear and gently clean the dried blood, dirt and another debris. After that, you can dry the injury by patting it with a soft and clean cloth or towel.
Remember that the injury is painful, so you have to clean it gently and be careful since enduring pain can make the dog stratches or even bites you.
- Cover the ear
You can cover it use a bandage. Put some antibacterial at the center of bandage and apply it on the injury.
- Prevent your dog from re-opens the wound.
After the wound has been cleaned , a new problem is started when your dog stratches the wound, licks or shakes his head. The wound will possibly be opened and the blood will flow again from the wound. So what you need to do is to make your dog legs are stay away from the wound.
- Using a sock
You can find a sock which size is appropriate for your dog’s ear. What will we use is the leg part, so you can cut the foot part away. Then, with the leg part (the sock’s tube), you can cut it to the point it has the same size as your dog’s ear.
Put it over the injured ear but make sure it is not too loose or too tight.
- Using an Elizabeth collar
An Elizabeth collar also known as cone collar is a protective medical devices which is used to prevent your dog from stratching and licking the injury during the healing process. This collar is available from your veterinarian, at a large pet store, or you can make it by yourself by using a paper plate.
When using this collar, make sure the neck of collar is short enough for your dog to eat and drink. Most dogs can eat and drink with the collar is still on their neck, but others may feel uncomfortable, so you can remove it for a while during their meal time.
- The temptation to stratch the injury may come from the itchy sensation at the injured ear, so you can clean the wound regularly to remove dirt and other debris which may cause the itching
That’s all we can do to treat the ear bleeding if the blood comes from an injury. But ear bleeding also occur if your dog stratches its ear since it feels uncomfortable with the parasites’ activity inside the ear.
If that is the case, just treating the wound caused by stratching is not enough. Here are some steps you can do to treat your dog ear :
- Treat the wound by following steps 1 to 4.
- If ticks are the cause.
Remove ticks by using tweezers, or if you are in doubt since you worry it may hurt the ear, you can use vaseline to block the ear in order to force the ticks to get out of the ear because they cannot breath.
- If mites are the cause
Even if it has a microscopic size, you can notice the symptoms : the increasing amount of ear wax and usually has a coffee color. Do not pick them or seek the mites by using your finger, it is useless and may lead to irritation. You can kill the mites by using some mite-specific medication you can get from your veterinarian or pet stores.
Note : It is important to noted that all of the steps mentioned above are done if the ear bleeding is caused by a small injury. If it is a big wound, you should contact your vet since sutures may be required.
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