Treatment of auricular hematoma, using a teat tube

Auricular hematomas in 35 dogs and 12 cats were treated with a drainage method utilizing a particular bovine teat tube. The method was easy to perform and required a minimum of expendable materials. Animals were quickly returned to normal activity, aftercare was simple, healing was rapid, and the healed ear was cosmetically acceptable. Complications that developed in 7 animals were related to the time of tube removal, and could be minimized in the future by following guidelines formulated from this study.