How Does a Dog Get Ear Hematoma?
Dog Ear Anatomy A dog’s ear flap (called the pinna) is composed of a layer of skin on each side of a layer of cartilage. The cartilage is what gives the ear flap its shape. Blood vessels go horizontally, passing through the cartilage. Violent shaking of the dog’s head (like when it has an ear infection) can cause the vessels to break when the skin slides across the cartilage. An ear infection in a dog is itchy and uncomfortable and prompts the dog to shake its head excessively and scratch the sore ear. Mites or fleas can also cause a dog to traumatize the ear with a hematoma when it shake its head or scratches at the fleas irritating in its ears. The Ear Hematoma A dog’s ear hematoma is easy to spot because the dog’s ear flap swells up. Inside the ear, the hematoma is made up of collected blood, blood clots and fibrous tissue from the broken blood vessels that are trapped between the skin and cartilage of the ear. The swelling is caused when the blood pools in this area and expands the
