torn ear

[schnell]

One of my critters tore an ear recently. I was curious how other folks have handled the copious bleeding.

[Spokerider]

My mutts have only had small ear flap tears along the edges, like 1 cm or so, from scrapping.
They do bleed, as ear flaps are very vascular.

Clean the tear or cut with chlorhexadine or similar, then apply light compression with a cloth or guaze until bleeding lessens and stops. Might take a few minutes for the clotting factors to plug the damaged blood vessels. Apply polysporin to wound and leave be. Watch for signs of infection.

If the tear is larger, may need to clean as described, and apply quik stop or EMT gel to help staunch the bleeding. If the cut is somewhere other than on the edge of the ear flap, it may be more complicated........

Others may tell you to use glue to glue the edges back together, if you do choose this avenue, do so judictiously, as gluing dirty, infected, bacteria-laden, non-viable tissue together will not result in an effective treatment.


As I said, I`ve only dealt with small ear flap cuts, not one half of an ear lopped off.

[schnell]

Alas, it was the tip of the ear torn off. Nothing to stick back together...

Stopping the bleeding was difficult to say the least. She would toss her head and reopen it continously. We resorted to packing the ear tip in table sugar. Kinda frontier, I know, but it let the clotting begin and sealed the wound. (No sting for her either.)

It formed a breathable antibacterial scab as soon as it dryed after clotting. The next morning the wound was looking far better than I expected. I was very impressed.

She got a NSAID ibubrofen type pain killer also, but only after the bleeding stopped.

She got back on her feet perky as usual the next day. Tough old girl.

At the time I was wishing I knew the vasculature better so that I could have applied pressure closer to her skull. She wasn't having any ear pinching. If I could have pinched the flow off near the base of the ear We might have gotten a handle on it quicker.

[Arkansas Frog]

I joined a carving club once and the first 15 minutes they told me you will cut your self and when you do use black Pepper, the kind you use for the table, they raided the McDonald's salt pepper box,and sure enough I stuck my self, grabbed the pepper thought it would burn but it did not and it stopped the bleeding, just pile it on.that is a fact.

[cat and bear]

I had a dog this summer, i couldnt get to stop bleeding, I used a whole bottle of blood stop, and pressure. As I ran out, and kind of in a panic for what to try next, i remembered when I was a kid, my great grandfather cut a bull, and sent me to the house, to get some flour, to stop the bleeding, sure enough, put it on the wound, and got it stopped, a sandwich bag of flour is in my vet kit now. Best I have found to get it stopped. I also ran it past my doctor buddy, and he said no ill bacteria effects using it either, good luck

[Outlaw 3]

I have had to coterize the wound with a lighter and a spoon. It will work, but you will see the burnt skin start to flake off in the week that follows. You will need to keep ointment on the burnt skin such as neosporin. This will help with healing faster and will keep infection out of exposed tissue. This is a drastic measure and was used to save a dogs life. This is not for every situation.

[huntinlass]

Guys, all good advice and experience........

I had a dog prick her ear on an old abandoned strand of barbwire fence. It was bleeding like a river, but she was wild to hunt. I've had plenty of ear wounds of all shapes and sizes, but never had one super serious or life threatening, until now.
It looked like an axe murder and I couldn't get her to stop hunting. Made it to the tree approx. 1 mile later, she was hammering & blood everywhere. Pretty soon, she backed off and sat down and quit barking. I walked over to her. Her eyes were 1/2 rolled back into her head and checked her gums. They were white. I knew it was serious. I had a couple paper towels and some electrician tape in my backpack. I wound the paper towel around her ear and then taped it all tight with electrician tape. Finally she had settled down so I could finish stopping the blood flow. I had to carry her to the snowmobile, then rode her out to the truck. Got her home finally and opened the truck door, set her down so she could walk into the house..........SHE FAINTED. Yep, tipped right over and eyes rolled back into her head. Had to carry her in the house. She lost so much blood, but it was all OK in the end because I got the blood flow stopped. She laid on her bed in the house and didn't move for 1.5 days. I got her to drink some chicken broth after a while.
This was all pretty unbelievable because it was just a little prick, but it must have hit a vein because I remember how it was spurting out of the ear. Anyway, ear wounds do bleed a lot, but they really can be serious. It is important to get that blood stopped anyway you can and sometimes it isn't easy.