We came home from vacation to find a pathetic, injured cat. He apparently shook his head so hard because of itchy ears that a blood vessel (or more than one) erupted in the penna of his right ear (the pointy part), causing a large hematoma (aka blood blister) on his ear that was so heavy it made his ear flop.
We got home late Saturday, so I couldn’t speak with out vet until Monday morning. They said to bring him in, but we had to wait until Tuesday morning. Sure enough, they confirmed it was a hematoma and said to leave him for surgery to repair it. The vet called me a couple hours later to say all went well, and Rob picked up our pathetic boy on his way home from work that afternoon.
They had to make an incision to let the fluid drain and suchered it back up in a way that closes the wound but also allows it to continue draining. If they had closed it completely (or just aspirated the fluid), his ear would have filled right back up, and we’d be back to where we started.
I was expecting Rocky to come home all bandaged up with one of those cones around his head so he couldn’t fuss with the ear, but he came home with nothing but an earful of suchers. We have to continually check to make sure the fluid that’s draining isn’t too excessive (and wipe it away so we don’t have blood and goo all over our house), and we have to watch to make sure he’s not scratching at his suchers or the incision (which you can still see).
The good thing is he’s quickly learning he can’t scratch that ear. The baddish news is he doesn’t like that. Instead of scratching, he growls and meows his way through the itch. He sounds pretty mad, but at least he isn’t fussing with his ear too much.
On top of all that, his ear is still flopped over. The doctor said it should go back to normal, so I don’t know if it’s still flopped because of the suchers or just because of the trauma. In any case, he looks funny. This is awful to say, but I hope his ear goes back to normal soon!
