I'm stumped as to why this keeps re-occurring (more occurring than not) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

About 1 - 1-1/2 years ago my male started loosing hair on the edges of his ear. Since then it is a constant battle to get the hair to regrow on his ear. He has never been fed anything but an all natural raw diet and trust me he eats a heck of a lot better then I do; gets his ears cleaned on a regular basis (i.e. not being caused by ear infection). His coat is absolutely beautiful with the excpetion of this dang ear thing.

I did discover that he has a bad reaction to brass collars and to a lessor extent the nickle plated collars - he lost almost all the hair on one of his ears and quite a bit of the other, not to mention around his neck. AND that was after only having the collar (brass) on for two or three days!

Now I simply have a nylon collar on him and the only time he has the cheap nickle plated thing is when he has to have the prong collar on. I don't even keep the stainless steel fur saver on him now.

And to make things worse, my female is starting to have the same problem <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Her's is no where near as bad as the males -- just on the edges. I have 6 other dogs that don't have this problem, so don't know that I would say it is something in the environment.

It appears as though the skin is very dry and cracking. They get plenty of all the proper oils in their diet. I have tried everything to keep them from drying out - shea butter, tea tree oil, hyrocordisone cream (to stop them from sratching) etc. Nothing I'm doing seems to work for the long haul.

The vet has checked, on several occassions, for ear infection - NONE. They suggested maybe flies, but my dogs do not live outside in a kennel, they are in the house more then out of it.

Has anyone ever had such a problem? Or have a clue what may be causing this? If so, any suggestions at this point would be greatly appreciated. My boy is a beautiful, solid black and just can't be having this bald ear thing going on - <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I am so glad I read your post, because I have the EXACT same problem with my 17 mo. old. Numerous trips to the vet, antibiotics, ointments, creams, things to flush his ears out, and NOTHING works! I have recently changed his food from IAM's to Nutro hoping that might help. My dog is in an outdoor pen during the day but I keep it up well and there are no flies out there eating his ears. In fact I have 2 males that share the same pen (divider wall in the middle of course) and my other dog has no problem. My vet thought it might be some sort of mange but after 6 weeks of treatment there is little to no improvement. Anyone out there that can help us?

I had the same problem with one of my females. I added Salmon Oil 1000mg/10 lbs of body weight to her food daily AND 400IU Vit E.

It was only the edges of her ears, and the inside was always clean with no signs of infection.

You can try this and see if it helps, I never tried anything topical but after a few weeks of the extra salmon oil and Vit. E all the hair had grown back.

P.S. IF your dogs are also scratching the ears, you may want to look at other supplements that you may be feeding that could cause a reaction. The same female that I use the salmon oil/vit. E with can not have alfalfa in any form or she scratches constantly. Alfalfa is sometimes a hidden ingredient in dog supplements and some brands of dog food.

WOW Cindy, maybe that's my problem -- just not adding enough. I have only been giving them 1000 mg every other day (the day inbetween they get cod liver oil). Guess I'd better go get a case of the stuff, having to give Kuj 1000mg/10 lb is going to take about 9 caps per day

When he isn't covered in dust (you know how NM is), he looks like he's wet he's so shinning. That much salmon oil --- he'll look like he's soaked <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the tip Cindy, I'll give it a shot and let ya'll know how it goes.

P.S. IF your dogs are also scratching the ears, you may want to look at other supplements that you may be feeding that could cause a reaction. The same female that I use the salmon oil/vit. E with can not have alfalfa in any form or she scratches constantly. Alfalfa is sometimes a hidden ingredient in dog supplements and some brands of dog food.

Actually, when it first started, that is exactly what I did add to his diet --- it actually did help (forgot about that - been so long ago). I'll try the increased oil first and see if that makes a difference.