My 3 yr old female GSD has missing hair on her ear margins, scratches her ears daily and it has resulted in two aural (ear) hematomas. Not sure if it is an allergy or not. We feed raw. We live in Utah and have been told we do not have fleas here. This has been an on-going problem with her for the last few years. Just now developed the hematomas. Any suggestions, besides $900 dermatology scratch testing, would be much appreciated. Thanks!

The missing hair on the ear margins is one of the indicators for sarcoptic mange. I would get the ears checked out at your vet office.

Is the dog itchy all over or just the ears? The scabies mites are very itchy, and contagious. The bummer is that in many cases they are not seen under a scope and can be elusive little buggers to find.

There is also a test that you can try to see if the dog reacts called a pinna pedal reflex test:
http://mangetreatments.net/pedal-pinna-reflex-test-for-mange/



It is worth a check and see if the dog has a response. I would make an appointment to see your regular vet for a skin scraping.
Also have the inside of the ears looked at. Ear infections can also cause a dog to scratch. Is there any debris inside the ears?

The vet performed a scraping the first part of June, with the first hematoma. He said it was negative. He thought it might be yeast causing the problem, because she has had a few ear infections in the past that were yeast caused.

She is missing hair in spots on the ear margin on the unaffected ear. The skin left beneath is scaly and appears dry. She also scratches (with her teeth) above her stifle. She is not missing any other hair, besides on the ears.

With these hematomas, ear findings were negative. No infection, no foreign bodies, foxtails, etc.

I will read up on the pinna pedal reflex test and give that a try.

Our vet thinks it is allergy. We have taken her off of raw chicken periodically, but it doesn't seem to make a big difference.

Thanks for your reply!

Here's my experience with my male, Kodi.
He did have some tiny amounts of hair missing on ear margins and it was very dry and crusty looking and some tiny bumps under the skin of his ears. We too did the skin scrapings and it showed no signs of mites. But he also had one patch of hair missing on his hock and was very itchy, scratching all the time. So, the Vet had him treated with an off label dose of Ivermectin two weeks apart, to treat for sarcoptic mange.

His itching subsided, so I believe he had scabies.
You might want to ask your vet about this as I have read that in many cases, the mites are not found at the time of the scraping, it doesn't mean they aren't there.

Also, Kodi did not test positive with the pinna test either.

I completely understand how frustrating it can be MaryAnn.
I have one atopic dog and then this happened with my other one.

Did your Vet find anything inside her ears. Where they swabbed and checked for yeast back in early June?
If this dog has had prior yeast issues, then I would have those ears checked again to see if there could be an infection again.

You have the dog on an all raw diet, is that correct?
No grains in the diet? How about salmon oil and vit e, do you supplement with those?

Hi, MaryAnn,

Welcome!

"Our vet thinks it is allergy. We have taken her off of raw chicken periodically, but it doesn't seem to make a big difference. "

I'd read up here on itchy dogs, because I'm maybe sensing an incorrect idea (maybe both you and your vet?) about canine allergies being most commonly food allergies. Food allergies are low on the list. (It's a common but nevertheless erroneous belief that an itchy dog first needs a food switch.) Even if it's allergies, food is not at all the most likely (flea hypersensitivity and then inhalant/environmental allergies both far outnumber food allergies in dogs; food allergies account for less than about 10% of dog allergies).

I agree with Joyce. I would want to look for sarcoptic mange mites (ear mites are much bigger than mange mites, which are microscopic as opposed to the pin-point ear mites) before considering the systemic problems that can underly this, including insect bite hypersensitivity. Or, as Joyce mentioned, ask about treating for it. (Yes, I have also treated for scabies without the vet actually seeing them and had success. I think many have.)

"Did your Vet find anything inside her ears. Where they swabbed and checked for yeast back in early June? ... If this dog has had prior yeast issues, then I would have those ears checked again to see if there could be an infection again."

Ditto. And I too would like to hear if the dog is itchy elsewhere, or just the ears.


eta
You didn't mention coffee grounds debris, so I'm guessing there isn't any? Ear mites, again, are pretty easy to see, and so it the debris, which is why I'm assuming it's not ear mites.

http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/ear-mites-otodectic-mange-dogs

http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/dog-mange-scabies

I so very much appreciate your replies.

Yes, she did have dark brown debris in her ears when she was diagnosed with yeast - treated with thorough cleaning and use of Gentizol ointment. The dark brown debris was not necessarily coffee-ground looking, although I was concerned about that at that time. It was more like smeary looking brown goo.

She has always "nibbled" above her left stifle and scratched her ears.

When we returned last week after her suture removal, I expressed concern to my vet about this as an on-going problem. He suggested the obvious weekly cleaning of the ears and then recommended I treat her ear (both on the inside and outside) x1 weekly with rubbing the Gentizol ointment on them. Seemed interesting to me, because he said there was no yeast, yet recommended a bacterial-anti yeast medication to treat weekly.

In answer to Joyce: yes, all raw. Raw from the beginning, we lost our previous long-coat to bloat. I have always felt somehow kibble was related. It was before we knew about raw. Also, yes to Salmon Oil and Vitamin E. We are just stumped.

I am glad to hear that food allergy is farther down on the list. We also have 3 other dogs, so if it's mange/mites wouldn't they be symptomatic as well, because of its high contagious ability?

P.S. to Joyce: absolutely love your GSD photo! Looks like you have a long-coat too!

Thanks again ladies

One thing that would definitely have me leaning towards scabies is if the dog is extremely itchy and scratching constantly.
At the time Kodi had it, he was extremely itchy.

He did scratch at his ears a lot too. He also had some tiny red bumps on his belly and that was when I got him in to see the vet.
Not sure if this helps any. Keep us updated with what happens.
(Kodi is the long coat in my photo, he is my heart dog, follows me everywhere I go, always by my side.)