Chloe's Trip to the Vet!

About a week and a half ago, Mak, our lead keeper, noticed Chloe’s right ear was swollen.  So we notified our vet, Dr. Kerin and he came out to examine Chloe's ear.  During the exam, Dr. Kerin heard wheezing-like breathing sounds coming from Chloe, so he prescribed antibiotics to fight the infection in her chest.

As for her ear, Dr. Kerin determined the swelling was caused by a hematoma.  A hematoma is a collection of blood outside a blood vessel.  This occurs when the blood vessel wall, artery, vein or capillary is damaged and blood leaks into tissues where it does not belong.  A hematoma may be tiny or large, causing significant swelling.

We are not exactly sure why the ear hematoma developed, but the treatment was obvious—the blood needed to be removed so the ear could heal.  Since the ear gets its blood supply directly from the overlying skin, a hematoma could decrease the blood flow, and thereby cause part of Chloe’s ear to shrivel.  So surgery was scheduled for November 30^th. 

Before Chloe could see the vet, her hematoma burst on Friday (day after Thanksgiving). Even though the swelling decreased, our vet recommended she still come in on Wednesday for surgery, just in case additional fluid required extraction. 

Can you see her floppy looking ear?

So, yesterday we were off to see the vet.  Excellent news!  The vet told us all the fluid drained from Chloe's ear on its own.  He thinks the hemotoma may have been caused by some sort of trauma to the ear since it was not infected.

Chloe’s wheezing has improved since taking her medicine and she will continue on her antibiotic regimen for several more days.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to report very soon that Chloe is breathing normally once again.

So bless Chloe’s heart; she now has one lazy looking eye (which our vet believes may be non-functinal) and one floppy-looking cougar ear.

Our vet told us today that “not only does she [Chloe] have a crazy right eye, but she now has a crazy right ear.”  That’s our Chloe girl—she’s the “right” wild cat for In-Sync Exotics!

Photo taken before her ear hematoma

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