# What to do for these ears?



## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

Something's up with Nik's ears. It looks to me like he got some bug bites inside, then scratched at them hard. On the inside, I see a few little dots with scabs, and a few darker, larger areas. Not sure about those, they look very similar to when Kenya had staph on her belly. My other concern is that on the backs and edges of his ears it looks like he is scratching his hair off? I know it grows back, but I do show this dog. Also I don't want it to get worse, obviously for his comfort. I don't actually see him excessively scratching, but I dunno....take a look:

See the larger, darker splotches in the ear and what look like little bites









Here you can see along the edge, that whitish area. To me it looks like when dogs get lots of fly bites. Nikon is outside a lot, but not when we're not home and he's never kenneled.


















The direct flash exaggerates the areas where I suspect he's been scratching









The pic doesn't show it as well, but really it looks like someone chomped on both his ears. Are they just shaped that way? It looks smooth in the pic but "IRL" it's more....jagged.









There are also some patches on the back of the ears that look a little irritated and have thinned fur, can't tell in the pics but you can see it when the sunlight hits it right.

Are these just bug bites? Anything I can put on them to sooth/help heal?


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## Keegan62 (Aug 17, 2008)

I am not an expert or anything

I know Jack started with the edges getting a little crusted and losing hair had to go to 2 vets to find out he ahd ear margin dermatosis but that is jsut the margins I would get it checked out....


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## phgsd (Jun 6, 2004)

It does look like it might be fly bites, has he spent a lot of time outside?
You can use Avon Skin So Soft to repel the bugs or there's a horse product called Swat that has permethrin in it - I don't like chemicals so much but it works well.

If it's not bug bites the missing hair could be allergies - my oldest has some seasonal allergies and her ears get a little bare around the edges when the pollen's bad.


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## islandtek (May 6, 2010)

Liesje said:


> Something's up with Nik's ears. It looks to me like he got some bug bites inside, then scratched at them hard. On the inside, I see a few little dots with scabs, and a few darker, larger areas. Not sure about those, they look very similar to when Kenya had staph on her belly. My other concern is that on the backs and edges of his ears it looks like he is scratching his hair off? I know it grows back, but I do show this dog. Also I don't want it to get worse, obviously for his comfort. I don't actually see him excessively scratching, but I dunno....take a look:
> 
> See the larger, darker splotches in the ear and what look like little bites
> 
> ...


Did you ever find the solution to your problem? I am experiencing the exact same thing, I know its not fly bites because its winter here. 
The vet keeps giving me ointment but it doesnt seem to be helping. I thinking food allergies and am in the process of changing his kibble to another brand.


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## YukonGal (Aug 25, 2011)

My shepherd pup has had ear issues since I got him and have had him checked out by the vet who gave me Trizchlor, which didnt help. I've switched food many times and now have him on a fish based diet. When his ears were at their worst and the scratching and irritations were awful, I researched on this and other sites and bought Zymox online. Best thing I ever did. Within 10 days his ears were completely cleared up and no more scratching. Would recommend it in a heartbeat!! If you google it you'll find all sorts of people who swear by it.


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## CuriousKira (Mar 15, 2011)

I completely agree with Yukongal with the Zymox. We use the cleaner once a week and then use the medicine with hydrocordizone when she itches them bad. Our vet kept telling us it was a small amount of bacteria, small amount of dirt and small amount of yeast. We switched her over to grain free and use the Zymox cleaner and no problems since!! We order ours on Amazon, I don't think they sell it in stores.


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## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

If the hair on the edges of the ears comes off when you scratch it and it looks kind of powdery grey at the bases of the hairs, it might be a fungus infection. I have treated this in the past with athlete's foot cream--apply once a day for a few days in a row and it generally clears right up.

If you have any doubts that that is what it is, get a vet to check it.


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## mcavan (Nov 2, 2005)

We have had a GSD bitch that did something like this every winter after she was about 3 years old. She had a lot of allergies, dust mites, human dander (yes human dander) and as soon as the furnace kicked on in the fall the hair on the edges of her ears would fall out and the ear edges would look "moth eaten" etc. It never seemed to cause her any discomfort or itch. After many trips to the vet, skin scrapings, various ointments, fungus treatments and more and when we finally realized it always went away as soon as the forced air heat went off every spring we just lived with it...yes we did have our ducts cleaned and did not see any improvements..It did improve quite a bit when we switched her to a raw, no carb diet but she still had some hair loss starting in the fall and through the spring just not nearly as obvious.


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## vomlittlehaus (Aug 24, 2010)

This is most likely caused from the dry air of winter and heating season. Happens to my bitch every winter. I have now tried to use aloe on her to see if that helps. If it does, it only works temporarily. Luckily winter isnt too long.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

This is not to due heat, he gets this all year and traditionally has been the worst in July/Aug when it is hot and humid (we only just got AC this year but don't use it since our house is so old it doesn't help). 

We've narrowed it down to "vasculitis" but that describes symptoms and doesn't explain and underlying cause though I doubt I'll ever know. When he has a bad bout I just use a cream to help the skin and hopefully keep it from being permanently damaged.



> Affected animals first develop alopecia along the margins of the pinna. The, skin in focal areas along the very edge of the pinna becomes darkened slightly and thickened and undergoes necrosis resulting in ulcers. Typically both ears are involved. Occasionally, ulcers will be noted on the inner aspects of the pinna. Lesions do not appear to be painful or pruritic and no other skin lesions or systemic signs are present. The ulcers will slowly enlarge if left untreated.
> 
> Tissues do not fill back in after undergoing necrosis, so that the ear margins will still have "punched out" areas present.


That pretty much sums it up. Cause is probably immune related but this condition is almost always "idiopathic" (good luck narrowing down a cause).

Vets look at this every time he's in for anything and don't have any bright ideas. We've tried many ointments such as Zymox, Dermalone, Mometamax.


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## gagsd (Apr 24, 2003)

Has he had an LE Prep or ANA test?


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

A whatta whatta? I have a friend who worked in a medical lab, she took swabs and scrapings and looked for all sorts of stuff, only found normal stuff.

At this point I just let it be since it doesn't bother him. He doesn't itch it like you would see a dog with mange or really dry skin or itchy. It's mostly an aesthetic problem, though I guess if it's bad long enough the skin is permanently damaged. Luckily he seems to get it in rounds about 2-3 times a year, so it will ease off and heal over before flaring up again. He doesn't seem to care if I peel off the "scales" (and you can see the damaged blood vessel underneath) or just leave them be.


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## gagsd (Apr 24, 2003)

They are tests of autoimmune function.

A test called the lupus erythematosus cell preparation (or LE prep) test is also performed. This test involves obtaining a sample of the patient's blood. Cells from the blood are damaged in the laboratory in order to harvest their nuclei. These damaged cells are then put together with the patient's blood serum, the liquid part of blood separated from the blood cells. Antinuclear antibodies within the patient's serum will clump together with the damaged nuclear material. A material called Wright's stain will cause these clumps to turn blue. These stained clumps are then reacted with some of the patient's white blood cells, which will essentially eat the clumps. LE cells are the white blood cells that contain the blue clumps. This test will be positive in about 70-80% of all patients with SLE.
from systemic lupus erythematosus - definition of systemic lupus erythematosus in the Medical dictionary - by the Free Online Medical Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

and ANA: The Test | Antinuclear Antibody


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## BlackthornGSD (Feb 25, 2010)

I might try rubbing his ears with some ointment or lotion--maybe just vitamin e? Gold Bond lotion?--once a week or so and see if it helps--it might increase the blood flow and help keep the dry skin cells under control... and it might feel good for your boy.


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## gagsd (Apr 24, 2003)

A CBC might be a good idea if you have not done one. If it is autoimmune, you want to keep an eye on what is going on that you can't see.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

I use a topical ointment, can't remember what it's called, but it has three main ingredients good for ear margin vasculitis (not the same ones used for a fungal infection or the zymox/otomax type concoctions).


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