Help Skye Heal: Surgery for Ear Hematoma

Hey there! I'm a single mom who recently rescued/adopted an 8 year old American bulldog pit mix. Skye is an absolute amazing dog and has been such a blessing to my family. When she came to me she was up to date on all shots, however, it was obvious she had a common skin allergy that these breeds tent to have. Unbeknownst to me, this allergy caused an ear infection in her ear. We started seeing signs of this, head tilting and shaking her head/digging at her ears on Wednesday. By Friday evening i noticed mild swelling of her ear. Not enough to know her ear was swollen but enough i could tell it was bothered at least hy her scratching. Unfortunately, by the time we got back from my son's football game and her ear was obviously swollen all vets were closed in my area beside emergency vets and i didn't get paid till Thursday. By Sunday it was obvious we needed to readjust my plan. I called around and got an appointment for Thursday, but it wasn't soon enough. So we kept calling and got in on Tuesday. They told me it was a hematoma and an ear infection. 178 later we got meds for the ear infection but they didn't suggest anything for the hematoma besides riding it out. Wednesday it got even bigger, and because i had an appointment Thursday anyway i decided to go and ask about getting it drained. 128 later they told me all the complications about getting it drained and said honestly surgery is the best option but its expensive. Draining the ear can still cause a laundry list of complications and still lead to a deformed ear which makes her more likely to get reoccurring ear infections/hematomas and potentially cause hearing damage. Letting it heal naturally will take 3 months at a minimum and will deform her ear (also causing reoccurring ear infections/hematomas) and potentially cause hearing damage. They provided me pain meds to make it a bit more tolerable for her for 2 weeks and sent us home.

My budget is extremely tight right now, but Skye is very uncomfortable and unfortunately there isn't much i can do because i cannot afford the surgery or even all the additional costs of getting her ear drained and getting an e-coller (cone of shame). I hate to do this but idk how else to help my girl out. The vet gave me some pain meds which has at least got her appetite back but she is still very uncomfortable and keeps digging in her ear which is preventing the hematoma from being able to heal. Her best option would be surgery but i just cannot afford it. Whatever you can fo to donate is greatly appreciated. If i cannot get the surgery I'll probably drain it to help relieve the pain and hope that a complication that would require surgery doesn't happen.

The cheapest place i could find was a local place my friend HIGHLY recommend. They said the max cost of the surgery would be 800. The additional 75 is for all the things id need to have to set her up for success after the surgery/while waiting for the surgery.

Update: skyes regular vet finally got back to me and because they've already seen her and done her evaluation the surgery cost is 650. I'm trying to get an ecoller, hematoma head scarf, and some anti itch whipes for her ears to give her the best leg up for after surgery care.