Django’s vets contacted Alison as he had suffered a few abscesses on the face in front of one of his ears, and his vets reported they couldn’t see down his ear canals properly, as though they were blind ending. Alison was suspicious of ‘ear canal avulsion’ where the external ear canal is torn into two parts after trauma. This is a very rare condition, one which Alison has only treated on two occasions in the past, but the benefit of past experience is useful to recognise such rare problems. Django had been involved in a road traffic accident a few years previously, where he had bled from his ears and a large wound on his face was continuous with the inside of his ear canal. Alison recommended CT scan of his head to assess the extent of his abscess and to look for disease on the opposite side. CT showed a large abscess in front of both ear canals and the lack of continuity of his ear canals was suggestive of avulsion. There are only a few cases of successful repair of ear canals in the veterinary literature and all had been repaired soon after injury. Furthermore, no other animal has been reported with an avulsion injury of both ears. Given the chronicity of the problem, Django’s owners opted for TECA rather than attempt primary repair. This was a good decision, as Django’s ear canals were so badly damaged that repair would not have been possible. As well as TECA, Django’s abscesses were debrided and flushed to remove all necrotic and infected tissues. 

 

Django’s owner updated me 6 weeks after surgery: ‘Django is MUCH better! He's in cracking form- very affectionate and eating huge amounts. When he had the abscess, his weight went down to 3 kg but he's now back up to 3.9kg and looking much healthier. He certainly seems happier. He has some hearing- no different than before the operation I'd say. He also managed to leave a dead mouse on the carpet this morning, so reflexes are back.’