>Please, what is a hematoma?  Sounds painful too.
 
A hematoma is basically a bruise.  Cats get ear hematomas all the time,
and what happens is that the blood accumulates and creates a big
pillow-like area since it has nowhere else to go (whereas in the skin of
other parts of the body it can spread out).  this isn't painful at all for
the cat (or ferret), just big and ugly-looking.  Vets can "fix" them
surgically by draining the accumulated blood and fluid to flatten out the
pillowed area, then trying to keep it from re-collecting in the area by
putting little sutures all over the ear to tack down the skin to the
cartilage.  The ear will heal whether treated or not, but will usually
have some degree of deformity because the blood kind of destroys the
cartilage in the ear (esp when left untreated), but the sutures can also
make the ear heal in not-quite-perfect shapes.  But bottom line is- it's
mainly a cosmetic thing and doesn't hurt the animal at all.  At least this
is what I learned when I worked for a vet specializing in cats and
ferrets- correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Jamie and the gang
[Posted in FML issue 3177]