Finally

After two more re-checks, Leo finally got to have the sutures removed from his ear. That was almost two weeks ago, now. It was kind of comical there at the end, really. Most of the sutures had come undone after weeks of scratching and head-shaking, and were just sticking out at random, untied, all over the place. The purple suture-string had even faded to white in places. I guess they still performed their purpose and held the skin and cartilage together, despite being untied. I tried to pull a few out, myself, but wasn't able to keep Leo still long enough to grasp them and pull. I'd figured, if I could just get the tweezers clamped on one end, he'd shake his head and that would be it, quick and painless, but... he just wasn't having it. And they were really stuck in there as things had been healing up around them all this time... Leo's ear looks so much better now. It seems as if removing the sutures helped the most. He's not scratching/shaking anymore, so things are less irritated. The scars from the incision has finally almost cleared up- I hadn't thought it ever would. The scar tissue is also receding quite nicely. His ear is still thicker, and always will be. But after a few days being too busy to massage his ear like I have been, I noticed yesterday that one hard knot is gone, another is smaller, and the biggest, softest lump of scar tissue is also dissipating.

It's been looking more "normal" from the outside for a while, but every day it seems  to head even more in that direction, rather than sticking out away from his head. The vet is very pleased at how nicely it's progressing, and that we managed to avoid the crinkling/curling that usually results from this sort of injury.