# HELP, Swollen ears!!



## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

Noticed the ewe that looked pregnant has swollen ears! One ear is closed because of it, other is nearly closed. Nothing else seems off, though, it does lay down more often than the rest.
What causes sheep ears to swell?????

Read that clover can cause ear swelling, can't find pics of those claims. I know it causes horse swelling as my mare has this issue every spring.

It's like someone filled the ear with air, between the inside ear skin and the cartridge. 
She doesn't like me touching them, tongue is normal in thickness and color, nothing else is swollen, good eye color, ect.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

http://www.library.illinois.edu/vex/toxic/alsike/alsike.htm

Sounds like it could be Alsike clover....have you been getting rain lately? It's worse when the clover is wet.


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## Wolfy-hound (May 5, 2013)

I don't know sheep but that looks like a ear hematoma to me, where fluid builds up between the layers of skin in the ear due to trauma to the ear leather. I see it in dogs when they shake their heads a lot from ear infections or banging an ear on a collar, or when the ear hair was matted tight and it gets shaved off.

None of this might be applicable to your sheep though.


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

Alsike clover issues is what my mare gets every year. 
We got a bit of rain the other day and some last night, been going from dry and very hot to suddenly cold and some rainstorms. 

It looks like its from the base of the ear outward, I'd think the hematoma would show up more so on the ends of the ears where the ears really flap around. 

There's a ton of clover, especially at the top by the house/fencing/barn and such. Mountain sides and the flats are more grasses and then those evil double buttercups.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Here is an interesting read. And it might be a good idea to have your Vet check this issue out, just to make sure.

http://sheep-dreamer.blogspot.com/2008/10/sheep-diseases.html


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