The fur on the outside rims of my dogs ears have become jagged like a serated knife. The trainer I work with noticed and suggested it was a fungus.

He siad I should put some neosporin on it every now and then. I just started doing this but I noticed my dog has really started itching his ears with his paws and the fur on the back of his ears is getting thin from the constant scratching.

ANy one seen this? Will continued applications of Neosporin work or should I go see the vet. How often should I apply the neosporin??

Are your dogs outside a lot? I ask because this can also be caused by flies biting the ears. If it is flies that are causing it, you can get some stuff to put on the ears at any feed store, & of course, if it is flies, you will want to do anything you can to immediately eradicate the source. The other thing is to make sure the dog doesn't have an inner ear infection, or foxtails in the ear.

My GSD was shaking his head a lot and holding his ears in a strange position and so I brought him to the vet. He had a double ear infection. I'd take him to the vet if I were you. At the very least, he should be able to tell you with some certainty what is going on. If it's an ear infection, it has to be treated properly.

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My GSD was shaking his head a lot and holding his ears in a strange position and so I brought him to the vet. He had a double ear infection. I'd take him to the vet if I were you. At the very least, he should be able to tell you with some certainty what is going on. If it's an ear infection, it has to be treated properly.

Judy is absolutely right.

Ear infections are painful, but they respond to treatment. And, as Susan says, if he has a foxtail in an ear, that too can get in so far that the vet has to remove it..... and it can and often does trigger an ear infection, too.

Yes, you need the vet.

I forgot to say that there are other ear issues that cause head-shaking and scratching, but they too need the vet and possibly the vet's microscope.

Its not flies and its not a foxtail because I am extra careful about foxtail and they are all dead now. The place that is the issue is the outside rim of his ears so I don;t think it would be an ear infection.

I think I'll take to the vet anyhow and let you know what happens.

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Its not flies and its not a foxtail because I am extra careful about foxtail and they are all dead now. The place that is the issue is the outside rim of his ears so I don;t think it would be an ear infection.

I think I'll take to the vet anyhow and let you know what happens.

Yes, please do. It just doesn't sound like a usual fungal infection on the rims only..... But I'm not a health professional, and I will be interested to hear what it is. Would you know ringworm if you saw it? I have read that it can present on the ear rims, but I haven't actually seen it there. And yeast -- I've always seen it more inside the ear canal.

Sarcoptic mange(scabies) often shows up first on ear margins, so it is a good idea to take your dog to the vet. It is easy to treat, but it is best to catch it early before the dog scratches too much as they can develop secondary infections from all the scratching. I had one dog misdiagnosed with "allergies" as most of the vets seem to do that for anything itchy around here. I would rather have spend the very small amount for the ivermectin than all the cash I put out for special diet and steroids.

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Sarcoptic mange(scabies) often shows up first on ear margins, so it is a good idea to take your dog to the vet. It is easy to treat, but it is best to catch it early before the dog scratches too much as they can develop secondary infections from all the scratching......

I'm glad you posted this. I have a foster right now who we treated last week (successfully) with Selamectin (which I believe is related to Ivermectin). This was my first mange dog, so I didn't know about the ear rims being a presentation area. (This guy was scratching his chest.)

I know mange can sometimes be a clinical or presumptive diagnosis, sometimes hard to diagnose positively, but we got lucky with this one: the vet saw the mites clearly.

And you're right that the treatment was fast, simple, and effective.

I wouldn't have suspected allergies in this guy, although the shelter personnel did say they thought he had allergies. He didn't act like an allergic dog to me at all; my vet also didn't think it was allergies. But I'm used to the ear infections that are triggered by allergies as involving the deep inner ear and not the rims.

This is a new thing for me to add to the allergy info arsenal. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> Always good to know of something else that can look like but not actually be allergy-related.

Matt, I do hope you post back with the results.

I'll post back as soon as I take him. Its gonna have to wait until monday morning, but I'll let you know.

The trainer I work with runs a Kennel for working dogs and he said he has had a Fungal infection on several of his dogs recently that presented the same way as my dogs and that neosporin took care of it. He was the one that actually noticed it.

I'm still thinking it is the same fungus he mentioned but the neosporin doesn't seem to be working so best to take him to the vet.