Kloliver

I'm just sick about this, folks. Rango lost the tip of his ear today. Think triangle shape of about 2' across & 1' from centre to tip.

I've been treating his other ear for a mild yeast infection & so have been paying very close attention to his head in general. I brushed out both ears not 4 days ago & no issues there. Took him to the groomer today & when she had him in the tub, the hair parted from what was then the small necrotised tip & called me right away saying a trip to the vert was immediately needed.

I had her dry him quickly & off we went. The tip was barely hanging on, mostly by hair so the wound edge had already started to heal. We're all MYSTIFIED at to what cld have happened. The vet said ears bleed like crazy but honestly folks there were NO signs. No blood, no shaking or scratching, no whining or wincing.

As it was already partially healed, he didn't need stitches. I bought him a pro cone but that seemed to freak him out more than the vet trip which he was SOOOOOOOOOO good at. Anytime he raised his head from the table I whispered, "Head down Rango" & down it went. They were amazed! Thank DOG today was grooming day. I wld have combed out his ears sometime this wknd & had the tip come off in my hands!!!! I wld have DIED. I already had my cat shake loose a BIG inner ear polyp right in front of me not 3 months ago (which completely destroyed his eardrum._

Luckily his hair will cover it but I feel so terribly my POOR baby boy. When he was at the groomers he was having the best time playing with a Scottie dog that hasn't played with anyone in a long time. What gives?

PS: not frostbite, no bite marks.....

BorderKelpie

Interesting (and scary for you).

Any chance of a kid wrapping a rubber band around the end of his ear? We've seen a lot of that sort of stuff at the vet clinic. Possible fly strike? (I don't know where you are, so I am not sure what weather you're having). Is he an older guy? Could this be a peripheral neuropathy issue?

How is he otherwise?

I wish you and him all the best.

Kloliver

I'm just sick about this..... no kids, just 1 yr old, weather zone 5b so its winter but not that cold & he's not out long enough to worry (he misses his mum.)

He's completely fine otherwise. I'm stressing, not him; not 1 little bit. He was playing with the other dogs just before the groomer discovered this so its obviously not bugging him.
My heart just aches for him though. No kids, he's my baby. Hubby keeps reminding me, he's not...... but the heart says otherwise

BorderKelpie

(Your hubby's wrong, your heart is right - JMO)


Anyway, did the vet find anything unusual with his ear, I mean, besides part of it falling off - I guess that's weird enough.

Does he play rough with other dogs or even a cat? Do you have a parrot? I'm just wondering if he could have gotten a nick, scratch, or bite that became infected. I would think that most parrots would remove the ear right then and there, so I guess possibly damaged by another animal playmate or even a bad bump to his ear. At only a year old, I am guessing he still plays pretty hard and isn't always the most graceful critter yet.

On the bright side, it doesn't appear to bother him, you were alerted to it and took proper care of it and the hair will grow to cover it. I have a short haired dog (Kelpie) who is missing almost half of one ear and the other is notched pretty severly. There's no hiding that. She is easy to pick out of a crowd, though. (It was the result of a dog attack long before I even met her). Her amputated ear never seems to bother her, so I am guessing your boy will be just fine. You, on the other hand, have got to not feel so badly about it.

He is now even more ruggedly handsome and has a battle scar to show off to his friends.
(Wonder what kind of story he'll make up for that?)

Pictures would be interesting, though.

Kloliver

No, they weren't concerned as the tissue next to the necrotic was so darned normal. Lol- weird enough indeed.

No parrot- bad for migraine sufferers *grin* & I dont think a hawk wld take Rango on. He plays with his paws a lot & gambols, jumps over them & runs circles around them but they are all about the 1 yr mark so exhuberant as medium big dogs can be.

You're right, I've never experienced mama guilt before & this hit me hard, but I have to realise dogs experience pin & injury differently than we do


Who says Poodles aren't tough. Maybe I'll get him a biker jkt & a pith helmet......Grrrrrrrr..... that wld suck for the person he walks up to be head patted though.

THX for making me feel better about this. Hubby just rolls his eyes & says "Relax, stop obsessing"....(yada yada yada & no help whatsoever)

Kloliver

They are in my folder if you'd like to see what happened. It's disturbing but not gory as it had already had many days to heal before we were aware of the issue.

BorderKelpie

Actually, his ear looks pretty good considering. I would just keep an eye on it for a few days (I'm sure you've been checking it hourly lol) to make sure it isn't something that will happen again.
If it helps at all, I've seen much, much worse heal really well. Dogs are pretty amazing.

He has a beautiful deep brown color to his hair, too.

lavillerose

That is a very weird injury, especially with no evidence of bleeding. Maybe whatever happened was outside, so whatever bleeding happened there? Is he ever in your yard unsupervised or anything like that? But I think you'd still notice some dried blood—I would.

If there was no blood evidence at all, I would think it was just one of those odd things the body does to heal itself. Maybe a very small injury eventually necrotized a larger area, or something.

But at least it wasn't too much ear to lose. I've seen some bad ones. One cocker spaniel I groom is missing pretty much half of one ear leather, a straight line right across. Scared the heck out of me when I started brushing. The owners didn't mention that, and she got normally styled long, full cocker ears, so I really couldn't see it until I was combing through.

Kloliver

I've wracked my brain playing What If.... & How could.... I just don't know. He has 12 acres to play on & the invisible fence wires are stationed a good 5' before the actual fenceline so he couldn't have hurt himself on that.

I guess it must have been an oddity. I've been treating his other war for a mild yeast infection so I've been vigilant about his ears. The drying rinse solution tends to matt the hair so I've been combing them both out regularly as he's also going through coat change.

If it hadn't been groomer day he was due for his brushing. I wld have been combing out his ears & it wld have come off in my hand!!!!! BARF!

You're right, I have to stop feeling guilty & move on (but my poor bayyyyyyyyby *lol* I need more work on this)

partial2poodles

I read about a groomer whose sharp scissors cut off the tip of an ear and she crazy glued it back on and the hair covered it. Only when it came off in the owners hand a week or so later was it discovered.

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