The old dog had been having ear pain and discharge and weepy left eye for some months. As the owner wanted to put the dog to sleep, I arranged for the dog transport man to bring the dog to my surgery. His wife did not want the dog to die by lethal injection. So, the dog was treated. The owner requested his skin growths to be removed. After that
I advised the owner to bring the dog back for the ear surgery in 7 days' time as that was the primary problem. At the 7th day, the gentleman phoned: "I will wait a few more days." I said OK.
A few days later, he phoned saying that there was blood inside the dog's left ear. I got the dog transport man to send the dog. Yes, there were fresh unclotted blood in the dog's left ear. The blood was red but would never clot. The dog must be scratching its ear and has self-inflicted damage to the ear. Yet, normally, there would be an aural haematoma - a swelling of the ear flap. This was just fresh unclotted blood inside the ear canal.
I sent the dog back on antibiotics and scheduled to operate 7 days later. This time the owner kept his appointment. Yet there was still unclotted blood inside the left ear. I took a picture for readers to see.
During surgery, I could see grey globules of cells inside the horizontal and middle canals. They could be ear cancerous cells. I did not do a histopathology as it would add up to the veterinary costs and it served no purpose for the owner. All owners want are least cost.
The vertical ear canal was removed. Hard as a rock. I had to use a bone cutter to split it.
An incredible but true story
The owner's wife came to visit the dog. She wanted the dog home after surgery. This was not advisable as the dog's ear needed careful nursing to prevent infection and stitch breakdown. Once the stitches break down, there would be a big hole and the owner would construe that the vet is incompetent, as owners seldom blame themselves for the poor outcome of a surgery.
In such a situation, I would advise that the husband be advised as the husband had not asked for the dog to be discharged. Ideally, the wound should be healed first and that would take 14 days at least.
However, to save on veterinary costs, the dog was discharged on day 9. After a few days, the owner sent the dog back as the dog had a swollen area in front of his surgery. The dog had been scratching and the horizontal canal opening had not been cleaned. The dog just would not permit the owner to do it.
So, another 10 days of stay and more veterinary expenses including the cost of several trips by the dog transport man. Fortunately, this was an owner who was able and willing to pay the expenses which could amount to a big sum in view of the to-and-fro of the dog and the transportation.
Vertical ear canal ablation needs a lot of nursing. It would have been cheaper to just let the dog stay at the surgery for 14 days and let the wound be cleaned daily by the veterinary assistant. The dog was quite fed up with the ear cleaning which must be painful for him. But he was muzzled and was more well behaved.
On the last day of nursing, before going home, I saw him wagging his tail as if he was happy to be free of his chronic ear pain. He never barked and was a dog of few barks.
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