Bloody Ear Tips?
Ear tips raw and bleeding" Blood all over your walls and ceiling? That's not as uncommon as you might think.
First things first: Why is your dog flapping his ears? If it's mites,
you need to get to the vet and get a cure. If it's yeasty ears, then
you need to fix that, too. Just check out my page on good ear health for life.
Second: Now that the underlying cause is being taken care of, let's
look at some reasons the ear is being damaged. One common cause is your
dog's collar. The ears are just long enough for the ends to be hitting
the collar or buckle and that's where the damage is occurring. If so,
take off the collar. If your dog is not wearing a collar, could it be
the sides and top of his crate? All those things ruled out? Well, it
just might be his hard head! ;-)
No matter the surface the ear is hitting, that needs to stop.
For the ear wound itself, clean the wound, add the antibiotic and
bandage with gauze and use surgical tape over the gauze. Now, you
need to keep that from flying off the first time he shakes his head.
You can get a snood - that's like a tube hat that Afghans and other
long haired dogs might wear to keep from losing their ear fringe. You
can probably find one on line, just Google "snood". Sometimes pet
stores have them or at shows. Use the snood to "fix" the ear to the
head by just slipping it over the head. You might have to keep putting
it in place, the dog is bound not to care for it at first.
Alternatives: Cut some panty hose legs and use that over the dog's head
as a "snood". You can also use masking tape and tape the dog's ears,
either under his neck with the both ears down in a natural position or
you can flip the ears up over the top of the head and tape all around
his head. I've found that under the neck works best for me and my dogs.
You will have to remove the tape, clean and dress the wound about every
other day or every 3 days. It takes about 10 days for a wound to
completely heal, so be patient, vigilant and it will work.