My hunting dog (Dexter) had a swollen ear. I took him to the vet after about a week and Dexter's ear had gotten pretty big. The vet cut five holes about the size of dimes in the underside of his ear and then put 10 stitches all the way through his ear to draw the loose skin up. He said this should let the skin reattach to the cartilage. Dexter is acting like he is in a lot of pain and his ear looks nasty. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Yep, This happened to a lab I had (he died) the vet made a few cuts and stitched his ear up. Looked horrid even afterwards. but he had not problems afterwards. The key is to keep your dogs ears clean.

The way you describe it, it sounds like cauliflower ear...and if it's anything like it...it can be VERY painful. I'm guessing the skin pulled away from the cartilage in the ear and filled w/ blood. Sounds like he's doing the right thing. I never had it w/ a dog, but I did wrestling in high school.

Chris

Yup, It hurts like hell after the surgury. You will get good at bandaging the dogs head if was like what I have been thru. Here Is a pic from last year.