Torn Ear In Senior Dog (14.5 Yrs Old Lab Boy) -

[labadore]

Has anybody had any experience with having a torn ear in an elderly dog treated and healed successfully without stitches. Because of my very senior boy's age (14.5 yrs old), it is just too risky to put him under a GA to have stitches and both vets he has been to since the attack on my beautiful Lab boy have advised that a GA for stitches would have to be the very last resort if the ear doesn't heal or gets infected. What is the average time for a ripped ear to heal without stitches and have any of you had problems with the ear not healing properly or not healing at all and had to revisit the vet for alternative treatment? I am taking my boy back to the vet on Tuesday for a checkup as it will be a week after the attack.

As the attack happened on New Years day, my vet was closed, so I took him to another vet closeby that was open and we discussed at length what the options were we agreed that gluing the ear and stapling would be the best first option for my boy. The vet thoroughly cleaned the wound (I had already cleaned it up and applied Neocort cream to it before his appt)and scraped around the edge of wound to make it as fresh as possible to give best chance of healing. A numbing agent was applied, but Vet had to tread gently and stop and start according to my boy's tollerance as the scraping was being done with a scalpel and the numbing agent didn't block out all the pain. He was given 7 days of antiobiotics and painkillers and I had to monitor his ear daily. I had planned on taking him to vet the next day when they reopened anyway just to check all was ok and make sure this course of action was the best for my boy. The next morning I noticed that one of the staples was missing and the other one had moved and the wound had reopened My vet said that gluing and stapling was probably not the best treatment as the success rate is not very good. He shaved around the wound and then liberally applied some Otiderm - an ear cleaner and wound cleanser and gave me a bottle and I have to apply twice a day. He advised the wound will heal, but I need to be vigilant (which I am) about regularly checking the wound and to ensure he isn't exposed to flies and I can buy some fly repellent for his ear which I did. However, where I live there is hardly any flies and it is very rare for flies to be in my house, even in the heat of summer with back door open. The odd fly that does come in gets zapped pretty quickly :D

Now for the story of his attack, it still upsets me greatly just thinking about it I quite often take my dogs to Crestwood Reserve in Baulkham Hills for a walk, especially in the warmer months it is quite a shady walking/hanging out place with lots of trees and as I have both a Lab youngster and senior, I take them separately. My senior boys just loves to amble around at a leisurely pace, sniffing all the delightful scents and sometimes during our walks, we will just sit down on one of the very grassy areas under a big tree and just chill out. During out walk, I noticed in a distance a guy with two GSD's and the large one was offlead in an onlead area so I purposely walked my boy around the perimeter of one of the kids playgrounds in the Reserve so that I didn't have to walk past this guy and be bothered by offlead dog.

Just as we came back onto the pathway after walking around the perimeter, I heard running behind me and a kid calling sorry, sorry and before I even had a chance to torn around the large offlead GSD was alongside my boy and sniffing him. My boy wasn't phased by the dog and he seemed quite friendly and the kid was running to catchup with the dog followed by his parents with the onlead GSD. I told the guy that his dog should be onlead as this is an onlead area and he proceeded to tell me he was friendly, which he was, but that was besides the point. My boy was alongside me sniffing a tree with the big offlead GSD closeby and the owner was asking about my boy and he was starting to tell me about the other GSD, a female who was onlead because she wasn't good with other dogs and he had her on the other side of him and was standing to one side of the path and I was to the other side and keeping my distance and was just telling him we had to go and next minute his female GSD just launched a full on vicious attack on my boy, knocking him to the ground and doing a number on his ear. It was just so frightening, happened so fast, without any warning (no growling, no nothing) and caught the owner offguard and just about knocked him off his feet as she launched at my boy as we weren't standing too close to them. Blood everywhere, me crying, kid and wife and owner in shock and my boy's ear ripped open Owner managed to restrain his bitch pretty quickly before even more damage was done to my boy and was apologising profusely as I was walking away with my boy to the water to rinse his ear and assess the damage.

As we were over at the water tap he came over without his dogs, think he rushed them to the car and was trying to apologise and I told him this would never have happened if his boy was onlead as I had purposely tried to avoid him when I noticed his boy off lead and even though his boy was friendly, with him being offlead he had the opportunity to come running over to my boy very quickly and from a distance and his owner had the put my boy in danger by coming over with his DA bitch on lead and that this bitch was dangerous and should not be in a park where there are lots of other dogs on lead with their owners and lots of kids as the Reserve has a couple of playground areas. I told him to go away and leave me be, so I could continue washing my boy's ear and get him home and organise vet appt. I was too upset and concerned about my boy to get his details, which I know obviously could kick myself for, but my priority was to assess the ear damage and get my boy out of there fast. Luckily my old boy is a pretty tough old guy and it happened too fast for him to react and I was able to walk him back to the car on the other side of the park. I am going to visit this Reserve a few times by myself to see if I can find this guy and his dogs and get his details (pic) as I want to report this to Council. I don't want the dog destroyed, but I want her declared dangerous and be forced to wear a muzzle in public and make sure this guy has both dogs onlead at all times and to think twice where he walks them

Interestingly enough since the attack I have been walking my boy quite late at night, mainly for heat, avoiding other dogs and to also avoid flies (only takes one) and I have come across a number of GSD owners walking their dogs at this time, probably for the same reasons as me, but I now cross the road when I see one. I am now scared of GSD's as this bitch was truly vicious and scary and the noise she made when attacking my boy still haunts me Hopefully over time, my fear of GSD'S will go away as I have always tried to not blame the breed and my youngster has played with a number of GSDs in various dog parks over the years, but this bitch was truly frightening and it will take some time for me to get over this attack. I am so emotional about this attack as it was totally unprovoked, very vicious and my boy is very senior and at his age, every day is precious.

[persephone]

Poor old boy ..

I would be putting a snood on him - to stop flies..and also to stop him shaking it too hard :)

A soft mesh snood , or cheesecloth would be perfect in this warm weather :)

maybe you or someone can make one? Just a tube made from teh fabric ..with elastic at each end ..

[Loving my Oldies]

What a dreadful experience for you and your old boy and I sincerely wish him a speedy recovery and for you to be able to have a many more precious days with him.

I imagine treatment depends on badly ripped your dog's ear is, but sometimes ears are better off with the minimum of intervention, because they bleed very easily and profusely.

A snood for protection as Persephone has suggested and maybe just taping the rip instead of any more scraping and shaving.

:hug:

[Little Gifts]

My 16 year old stafford girl got body slammed accidentally by my other dogs into a new ceramic pot plant container near the front door. It smashed against the wall and cut down over her shoulder. Off to the vet straight away and we faced the same problem so they gave her a local and put 8 staples in. She didn't bat an eyelid. It healed well and again she didn't seem to notice when they removed the staples.

She also had he tip of her ear ripped in a fight the year before and it healed well, without stitches (we were camping but gave her first aid to stop the bleeding and some pain meds). It healed with a gap where the chunk was ripped out but no probs with infection or ongoing pain.

She was a very tough cookie, covered in battle scars by the time she went to the bridge because she would never back down if another dog started something with her.

Good luck with your old boy. Try not to worry about his age but just the injury as his age wont stop him from healing.

[Rappie]

It should heal eventually, the result just wont be as beautiful as if it were sutured under GA. The main issue with this kind of injury on floppy ears is that they are easily flapped and scratched and this can dislodge blood clots and disturb healing - sometimes it can help to bandage the ear to the head for a few days to get things started. Otherwise keep it nice and clean and keep flies off - I wouldn't try to pick scabs etc off as they would be useful, concentrate mainly on ensuring there is no actual dirt or debris stuck to the wound.

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

Poor old chap and what an awful fright. I don't know why people take dogs like that into public spaces, it isn't acceptable and they do need to be muzzled. At least she was on the lead - it could have been far worse.

Have you thought of treating his wound with Manuka Honey, it's soothing and healing. The snood idea is a good one. Keep him inside for now, esp with the heat.

[mixeduppup]

You could try a local around the ear.

[grumpette]

If you want it to heal with no gap you can use steri strips to keep the two edges together.

Stopping the head shake and scratching is the hardest.

Good luck with it all.

[dasha]

The wound will heal fine.

It may just take a bit longer and have a bit more of a scar but lets face it, at his age a scar is the least of his worries.

Just keep it clean.

[labadore]

Thanks everyone for your replies and suggestions. :)

I do understand that the best outcome is to have the wound sutured which would need to be done under a GA, and this was discussed at length with the vets, but has to be last option as too risky for my boy at his age. The main thing is that it heals without problem and without risk to my boy and I am not concerned if the end result isn't a "beautiful" result.

I will discuss with vet tomorrow as to whether the ears needs to be taped to his head and bandaged as he is not doing too badly at present i.e. not doing a lot of scratching, rubbing it along the carpet or shaking his head much and I am very vigilant in keeping it clean and luckily I am still on holiday till end of week, so can monitor him closely and he only goes outside to go to toilet and our walk at night. He has access to inside and outside when I am not home, but I really want to see more closing of the wound before I go back to work.

[juice]

He's probably going to keep a low profile, so i would just report it now to council so they can find him.