Lateral ear resection

Has anyone else had this surgery done for your dog? If so, can you share your experience? Specifically, how was the recovery? What did you do for aftercare?

Hazel had it done on both ears on Wednesday. We kept a bandage on her head for 3 days, until saturday morning, which we changed once a day. Now she has a cone instead, because she was somehow getting her bandage off, even with a cone in addition to the bandage. I spoke with the vet yesterday and she said the cone alone is fine, and will allow for the wounds to dry out.

She gets antibiotics orally twice a day, and surolan ointment is applied twice a day.

That is all they told me to do. Is there anything else I need to do? What about keeping her ears clean? What is normal in terms of odor and discharge at this point? She had surgery Wednesday, and at this point she still has some oozing of what looks like thick blood, and she smells to me like old blood.

The vet is closed, so I was hoping to hear other people's experiences.

(Sigh...why do these questions always come up when the vet is closed???)

Imi WAS going to have it done but we decided her ear wasn't bad enough. I do know a friend that had his spaniel's ears done as they were quite bad and it is rather messy in the healing stages. I would say keep it clean, keep her quiet, watch out for any abnormal swelling or discharge and hope for quick healing, which I am, for sweet Hazel!

Not in my realm of experience either, but is more common with spaniels--cockers especially.

Here's a bit of info from a site on LES:

AFTERCARE

Post-operative care after Lateral
Ear Resection includes the use of an Elizabethan collar to protect the
delicate incisions from scratching. This is worn for 10-14 days at which
time any external sutures can be removed.

The ear will still require treatment of its infection so topical and oral medication will continue to be used.

THE CAVEATS

Before calling up your veterinarian’s office to schedule this procedure right away there are a few facts to be aware of.

• The underlying cause of the ear
  infection is not addressed by this procedure. If the pet has allergies,
  hormonal issues, or problems beyond ear conformation as the predisposing
  factors to chronic ear infections, this surgery addresses none of them
  and infections are still likely to recur. This surgery simply makes
  cleaning the ear easier.
  
• If the patient has developed
  proliferative ear growths down the canal (a common occurrence making ear
  cleaning particularly difficult) and these growths are present in the
  horizontal canal as well as the vertical canal, then this surgery will
  not be successful. To check for narrowing all the way down the canal, a
  radiograph taken under sedation should indicate how narrow the
  horizontal canal is. If the horizontal canal is also narrow, this
  surgery will not be successful.
  
• One well known study reviewed 60
  dogs receiving lateral ear resections. The procedure was considered a
  failure in 86.5% of Cocker Spaniels in which it was used. In other
  breeds, 63% were found to have acceptable results. If your dog is a
  Cocker Spaniel, this is a breed for which the Total Ear Canal Ablation is likely more appropriate.
  
• If there is any reason to think a middle ear infection is present (see section on Vestibular Disease) a Lateral Ear Resection will not provide adequate control of the situation.
  
• Some surgery specialists strongly prefer that the Lateral Ear Resection be performed before they perform a Total Ear Canal Ablation
  in case the more conservative procedure is successful. If you are
  leaning towards the TECA surgery, check with the surgeon to be sure they
  are willing to do it without a prior Lateral Ear Resection in your
  pet’s situation.
  
• One of the chief complications of
  the Lateral Ear Resection is stricture at the entrance of the re-shaped
  ear canal. In other words, the new ear canal entrance may scar into a
  hole too narrow for proper ear treatment. This complication requires a
  revision of the ear canal entrance and is generally simple.
  
• The other classical complication
  of Lateral Ear Resection is called “dehissence” which means that the
  stitches do not hold. This happens when there is too much tension on the
  tissue or too much infection. If this occurs, the tissue is left to
  heal in naturally which takes longer than healing with stitches. The
  Elizabethan collar will be needed in this event until healing is
  complete.
  

Thanks Rona & Blanche.
Well, it sounds like we are on track with the Elizabethan collar, plus oral & topical meds.

My fear is we have that last complication happening on her right ear. To my very non-expert eyes it looks like part of her stitches are loose or gone. I have a call in to the vet, and in the meantime I'm just keeping the cone on her, gently wiping the area occasionally & keeping up with her meds.