Poor Faith and Her Poor Ear

We'd seen that Faith's hematoma ear was swelling more and my heart was sinking as I admitted that she would need to have it drained by the vet and it wasn't going to heal on it's own.

This was a few days ago

When I left for work on Friday morning, it was a little more swollen, but I never would have expected to see what we saw when I came home from work just a few hours later.  When I walked in the door I saw her ear and she immediately started shaking her head.  I sat and held her ear while I called the vet and after a few minutes I realized that holding her ear in place was actually letting her relax and stop shaking hear head.  So I ran to dig out a scarf while the oldest held her ear and we tied her ear up flat.

She looks miserable, but I could tell she preferred this as compared to feeling that huge dangly ear

 Once we got to the vet, I decided to take a few pictures to document how bad it had gotten.

Can you imagine having your ear swell that large in just a few hours?!

She didn't seem to be in pain, but any time that her ear fell out of the scarf, she would shake her head.  I'm guessing she wanted to get that heavy weight off of her head, not realizing it was hear ear.  The vet met with us for a minute or two and then took Faith back to drain her ear.  She said that the best way to insure that it didn't just fill up again was to keep it wrapped flat to her head for 3 weeks.

When Faith came out she looked better, but not thrilled to have her head wrapped.

It didn't take long before she started trying to scratch her head and the wrapping and I knew she'd need a cone.  The vet also recommended it, so we went home with a Cone of Shame.

Faith wasn't happy.

It was one of the most pitiful things I've seen in awhile.  The poor girl can't figure out what is going on.  She can't walk anywhere because the cone is so huge that it bumps and gets stuck on the doorway, the couch, the floor.  So Faith just stands there.  I call her name but she doesn't even try to turn and see me, the only way she will come to me is if I turn her head and make her see me.

Even eating was difficult, I had to hold the bowl up in the cone for her to get food and water.

I tried to take a "selfie" picture with her, but that darn cone is huge!

Sleeping was rough as she kept trying to cuddle with me but that's pretty hard to do when a dog has a cone on its head.  Even when she was snoring the sound was amplified so loud that I sat up in bed thinking there was something going on outside.

This morning I cut about 2 inches off the cone and things have been easier for her, but she is still not too thrilled.

I'm not sure how we will make it 3 weeks with this thing on her head, but more importantly, I'm worried that her ear is already swelling back up.  I feel a lump under the bandages where her ear is and all I can do is hope that it hasn't filled back up already.