My Great Dane's floppy ear injury won't heal. Why is it itchy?

Poor guy. This is a laceration, and it looks like it may be deep. It needs to be cleaned with an antiseptic such as Betadine diluted 50:50 with water or Chlorhexidine solution diluted with water until a very light blue mixture. Then Izzy needs to be placed on oral antibiotics and possibly even suturing of this area so that the skin covers it and allows it to heal. It looks like it is already infected, and infected wounds don't heal, so antibiotics are a must. I would perhaps go to a second vet for another look at this or insist on your current vet treating this wound properly. I hope that Izzy's wound heals up well soon! Best of luck and take care.

I'm so sorry that you are dealing with this with Riley. I have a few suggestions for you. The first is to make sure you have treated any potential cause of head shaking. Some dogs will shake their head with very mild inflammation of the ear canal and do not require an ear infection. Short term, you can look into using a snood (http://www.thesnoodfactory.com/). They are most commonly used to keep long ears with fur out of food, but may be useful in this situation. Finally, I would ask your veterinarian if they have any suspicion that Riley may have ear margin vasculitis. That can cause wounds on the tips of the ears that won't heal well without a medication like Pentoxifylline (http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1585). Your veterinarian may need to do some additional testing to figure out what is going on and figure out the best way to treat it. Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

This looks quite painful and possibly a ruptured pustule or blister? I would expect 4-6weeks for healing given the extent but if the redness has not reduced over the first 3weeks or the pain and discomfort is increasing it may be worth considering biopsy of the area or referral to a specialist dermatologist to rule out more sinister causes such as an ulcerative tumour

I think it will be fine to try and treat this at home for now (even though we don't know the cause), but would recommend a visit to the vet if: 1) It doesn't get better in 2 weeks 2) It starts to get worse or have a lot of discharge. Keeping the wound clean and keeping it covered are the key treatments for success in getting this wound to heal as soon as possible. For this, I recommend the following: 1) Wash/spray the area with just cool, clean water (no soap or other antiseptics) for at least 2 minutes at a time. Do this once a day. 2) Bandage the wound with gauze and apply an over-the-counter antibacterial cream (i.e Neosporin) to the wound. Here is a link to a good demonstration of a head bandage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3c-SXhUSBY Keeping it covered and keeping Indiana from pulling it off will be the most difficult part of the treatment. You can help keep the bandage on by placing a good (really sticky) tape above and below the bandage. NOTE: Be careful not to bandage too tight or it can cut-off the circulation. If you notice that the neck/chin area start to swell, then remove the bandage and leave it off until the swelling goes down. These types of lesions tend to take a while to heal, so don't be surprised if its not completely healed until a month later. Once the skin looks normal you can stop the cleaning/bandaging. I hope that helps and Indiana gets better soon.

This looks like an aural hematoma which is where blood from a capillary bursts and fills up the est between the two layers are cartilage. You can purchase a "no flap ear wrap" online to help with the flapping of the ears. Most commonly this problem needs a procedure done by a vet to allow the blood to drain while the two layers of cartilage re-adhere to one another. Also there is likely an ear infection that caused the shaking of the head to begin with that will likely need to be treated. If the blood is not drained the ear flap will eventually scar down and become a "cauliflower" ear which won't cause too many problems except that it isn't very cosmetic and sometimes they can be more prone to skin infections in the crevices of the cauliflower ear so this isn't recommended. I hope this helps.

Place an e-collar (cone) on Charlie to prevent pawing or rubbing. You can purchase one from your veterinarian or at most pet stores. This may be enough to allow healing, but if the area spreads or does not heal then she should be seen by your veterinarian. It may be localized bacterial or fungal infection or it could be a mite infection.

Oh my. Poor guy. Unfortunately this ear has a hole through it and is badly infected. He needs to see a doctor for proper care of this ear and prescribed antibiotics as well as have suturing of the laceration. This cannot be treated at home with much success. For now you can try cleaning it with Betadine diluted 50:50 with warm water to help prevent further infection, but please schedule an appt with your vet right away or if he does no belong to anyone in particular, then he should be surrender to an animal shelter so that they can use their resources there to try and save this pets ear and eye. I wish you all the best moving forward and hope that you can Kata moving forward. Best wishes and take care.