yellow lab-swollen ear lobes

I'd also advise you to not do the surgery. My lab mix, Marley, got one when he was 2. Being a new dog owner, I went with the Vet's advice and did the $400 surgery. The Vet told us that if we didn't do the surgery, Marley's ear would get "cauliflowered" and be deformed. We were not told that the dog would have to wear a lamp shade for 6-8 weeks afterwards. This caused my dog to freak out in the middle of the night and take off running into our drywall. A few hundred dollars in drywall repair and sedative medication later, he got through it.

A year later, he got a hematoma in his other ear and we let nature take it's course. We didn't lance it or anything. After about 3 weeks his body began re-absorbing the blood and his ear returned to it's regular shape, or very near to it.

Truthfully, you could not tell which ear got the surgery and which one didn't.

I agree it is most likely a hemotoma. My older dog also had a few issues with his ears. The vet prescribed a anti inflammatory called Prednisone for his ear infection. He then recommended that I attempt to drain them in the following manner. Clean the area where you will extract the fluid with an alcohol patch. Insert a syringe on an angle from the inside of the ear into the swollen area and withdraw the plunger to suck the fluid out until the hemotoma is flat. You may have to do this every other day for about a week. but it will eventually stay flat. I used diabetic syringes the dog didn't hardly feel them enter his ear. Hope this helps.