15/06/2022
Photo credit to The Healthy Dog Blog
Please share because groomers see a lot matted dogs in the spring.
I want to bring awareness to what can happen when your dog has extremely tight mats on the ears.
These are not cuts or burns on the ears, even though it can look that way. This is actually a hematoma and it forms sometimes when the ears have to be shaved close to get under the matting.
Imagine sitting on your legs or foot for an extended period of time, your blood flow is restricted to your foot or legs during this time. When you do stand all the blood rushes back to the area and tingles and is uncomfortable so you shake your foot or wiggle your legs which makes the blood rush faster.
This is what happens when the matted fur is shaved from the dogs ears. The blood rushes back to the ears, the dog shakes his/her head over and over, flapping the ears in the process.
This flapping causes the blood to form in the tips of the ears and seep out of ends.
It is mistaken for cuts often and groomers get blamed. This is definitely not a groomers fault.
Occasionally ear plucking can have a similar effect.
We can try things like shaving as slow as possible so the blood can flow slowly to the ear or we can try wet shaving to help prevent this. Sometimes despite all efforts we can't prevent the hematoma.
This blame of groomers is causing a lot of groomers not to accept tightly matted dogs and instead referring them to a local vet for a shave in the clinic for liability reasons, safety and the reputation of the business.
The Healthy Dog Blog is linked in the comments.
