Ear Gusher--What Do I Do?

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gorillahowl

Member Since 2013
I thought I was getting a hang of testing, but I must have hit a vein again. . . blood was everywhere, and it took several minutes to stop bleeding.

I don't have any Neosporin. I have generic Bacitracin, which is one of the ingredients in Neosporin. Should I apply some to his ear, which looks like a bloody piece of furry meat right now? Anything else I can do to ease his discomfort?
 
Bacitracin will help. I still hit the vein sometimes too. Usually putting pressure on it right away helps but if it bruises a little I just don't use that ear to test for a day or so.
 
I just did that tonight by accident - he shook his head sending blood everywhere. Just put pressure on it for a good bit longer than usual...I keep it 30 sec + until they say "OK, enuf is enuf"! I use those cotton cosmetic pads to hold behind their ears - folds over and soaks up lots of blood quickly.

BIG HUGS! At least you got blood to test...
 
I've tested my cat tons of times and for the first time just last week I had a gusher.

In my case though, I warmed the ear too much and then hit the vein. Even though my lancet was on a shallow setting, it just went crazy.

I didn't put anything on his ear because he probably would have licked it and rubbed it and maybe make it bleed more. I just kept constant pressure on it until it stopped bleeding. He had a small bruise but is now gone after a few days.

He probably doesn't have any discomfort. If the blood is in his fur, try to wipe it out with a warm cloth. My cat just sat there asleep while his ear was bleeding like no tomorrow.

You'll get the hang of how long to warm his ear for approximately before testing and that's how I control the bleeding.

I gave your other thread a quick read, you are using a lancet right? Is it on a shallow enough setting that it's not piercing through his ear? I hold a tissue on the opposite side of the ear before I use the lancet, so I can press it firmly against his ear. I use a One Touch Ultra, with the Delica lancets. At the setting of '3', it went through his ear because I could see a drop of blood on the tissue. At a setting of '2', it didn't go through his ear, but I had to warm his ear longer before taking a poke at it.

I know it's scary, but the bleeding is stopped, and the bruising will go away. It was difficult for me to test at the beginning, but I got the hang of it after a while. Sometimes I still have difficulty though, just in getting enough blood or maybe my hand slipped and i lanced too close to the outer edge of the ear!

Don't worry! You'll develop your own technique and get better, and kitty is fine!
 
I used to get really upset, especially when Nikki would cry when I poked her. She's gotten MUCH better about it but the turning point for me was thinking about one of my parents' cats. He got into a fight at some point in his younger years, and the pointy part on the top of his ear was split right in two. A good inch or so down. It gives him a quite rakish look actually. :-D At any rate, I figured if he survived that, Nikki would survive me taking a poke of blood. :roll: That made it MUCH easier to persevere.
 
Hi Carli,

It happens. It looks much worse then it feels to Wendall. I always used some little cosmetic cotton squares or gauze squares, to put behind the ear when I was poking, so I could just fold it up over w/ pressure on ear.

I have never heard of a cat's ear becoming infected from a lancet poke -- gusher or otherwise.
I poked Winnie a lot. I was a test-a-holic. ;-) Got some gushers my share of times, never used anything, never bothered her, no infections.

If you want to rub some polysporin on her ears, or something like that, it's fine.
 
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