My dog's ear is torn after an attack. Will it heal without surgery?

Ear tears are pretty common. They often look worse than they are and can bleed, a lot! Clean it up really well and if she is scratching put a cone on her so she doesn't make it worse. You can likely treat this yourself if it's minor but if you think it needs stitching or she needs pain killers or get infected then Off to the vet.

It’s so tough to tell from pictures alone, but I don’t see anything alarming. If you see any discharge from the wound, or if it seems to be opening up I’d recheck from the vet. From what I can see, if healing continues normally Olive should be fine.

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.

I believe that needs a stitch to close it. I'd take Dylan into a vet now to have this done. He will also need antibiotics to prevent infection (a dog's mouth has a lot of bacteria), which the vet can prescribe. I do not recommend trying to treat this yourself at home.

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.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Cooper. I do recommend that he sees a veterinarian. I would shave the hair around the wound and potentially close the wound or remove the extra skin for him. I think pain medications and antibiotics could be warranted. I hope this information helps!

Hello. Hunter may require antibiotics for such a deep cut. I would visit with your veterinarian to see if this is necessary, especially before an infection sets up in the ear. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.