Seeking Non-urgent medical advice
 

Angiedoogles and I have been taking Marty to the same vet since he was a puppy, and until recently have been very satisfied. Recently however, we have felt like the vet has been diagnosing and treating issues without properly looking at Marty ( he has had hot-spots and itching for a while, and she claimed they were caused by allergies, and gave him a shot) , and none of the treatments have worked. Last week we took Marty back to the vet, because he has developed something similar to scabs on the top section of both of his ears. We are fairly certain that they are not scabs, because A.) He has not cut his ears at all, and B.) They are not going away, but rather spreading slowly. When we took him to the vet, she did an exam that lasted about a minute and a half (not even looking at his ears), and then swabbed the inside of his ears (the growth is on the top) to look for an infection. She lef the room, and a few minutes later a tech came back in and said that the swab came back with a very slight increase in bacteria over normal (in his inner ear), and gave us some antibiotics and some drops to put on the affected area and sent us home.
I know I'm not a vet, but does this sound strange to anyone else? Angie and I love our puppies, and would pay any amount of money we have for them to be well, but we don't want to pay vet bills if they are not going to be well. Thanks so much in advance for the help!!

Have you tried to switch his food to see if he is allergic to it? What are you feeding him?

Simon had something similar on the top of his ears. Our vet said it was most likely caused by rough play between he and Hallie and was just a little scratch but since the ears are so sensitive they tend to scab over from the smallest of scratches.

I think you should consider switching vets just for peace of mind. It's such a relief to have a vet you trust and respect :) Good Luck!

Tino has had crusty scabs on the inside of his ears, they started as watery blisters and then scabbed over. His ears were red and warm to the touch. The cause was food allergies(chicken). It was heartbreaking to see him in such a state of distress. Now we feed him Wellness and he has been great! No scabs

Not sure if it is the same thing...just though I'd let you know.

Best of luck with your little one.

We, too, had something similar to this with a Miniature-Schnauzer that we had years ago. She was allergic to grass:eek: :eek: !!...... We kept her out of it as much as we could for awhile and used oatmeal shampoo and also an oatmeal based conditioning spray. In no time her skin was back to normal. (and sure enough, if she was outside in the yard too long..... it would come back)
Good Luck in finding the cause of his skin problem..... have you tried an oatmeal based shampoo? It does help soothe the skin, too!

My Boxer had the very same thing... He was allergic to the package material my new sheeets came in... I told my ex to wash them before we put them on the bed and he didn't and comet started getting that.. His Ears were so red and hot and had nasty scabs on him in 1 day it made his face red to... My Vet told me if i changed anything or used something diffrent try and take it away and see if it changes... I took the sheets off the bed and put some that were folded on the bed cuz that was the only thing diffrent i did.. in 3 days he was clear.. .Washed the sheets it never came back

well, we've been feeding him Nutro-small bites for quite some time now (and we buy the big bags, so he has had this particular bag for a month or two at least) so I'm not sure the food would be the cause. As for playing too roughly, when he and Maddie play it consists mostly of him pushing her around while she rubs her face on the ground ( lol ). I am fairly certain we are going to switch vets, we just need to find a good one in our area. If anyone local happens to know of one... feel free to let us know!

Sorry, I don't have any advice for you. Reggie has always had skin and ear allergies, but Nutro is what we feed, and it's TONS better now for the allergies. Good luck on deciding if you want to try a new vet. That's never easy.

BUT I would also like to say I just LOVE your new tagline!! :D

You might have him checked for ringworm. It can appear to be scabs that spread. You don't see it as much in dogs but I have a cat that is a carrier of ringworm...normally doesn't show signs unless her immune system is suppressed. A lot of the time it will show up first on a cat's ears and feet...not sure about dogs though. Your vet can use a blacklight to check for it.

That is strange about your vet...maybe you should try getting a second opinion. I think it's a good idea to check for ringworm and do a skin scraping to see what the scabs might be.

Here are some pics of his ears. Does it look like ringworm? I'm going to call around tomorrow to try to find a good vet, but I don't know who to ask for recommendations...

Those are the exact blisters Tino gets from his allergies! I usually have to hold a warm, wet compress to them to soften them up so they can heal.

I think that yes, that does kinda look like ringworm that has progressed. We got two kittens from the shelter who had been infected with ringworm while there and our dogs each got a few spots. Now, that said.... I have never seen an allergic reaction like that so I wouldn't be able to compare the two. I think you should ask the vet specifically if it could be ringworm.

So I looked up information about ringworm, and it says (and all of the pictures showed) that there is a small round area devoid of hair at the infected site. As you can see in the pics of Marty's ears, he still has hair all around the scabbed area. Also, from what I've read, symptoms don't usually show up unless the dog isn't healthy. Marty is very healthy and active and has never had any serious medical issues. Do you guys still think it might be ringworm?

Well, in our experience it's the area inside of the ring that is devoid of hair. Normally a ringworm spot is first just a red spot, then it turns into a red ring with no hair inside the ring. Then if it goes untreated, it can scab. Again, I'm not saying for sure that this is what Marty has...... it just really looks suspiciously like what I've seen before. It definitely still could be an allergy issue but like I said, I have had no experience with that.

And no, I don't fully believe the health thing you mentioned because both Tatum and Stormie (our Aust. Shep.) have always been very healthy - no vet visits ever except their vaccinations - and they both got the ringworm from the cats. Ringworm is extremely contagious..... I meant to ask if you and your husband have noticed any spots on yourselves. My daughters both got it years ago from some kittens that my MIL got from a friend. Those poor kittens had ringworm so horribly that my daughters got it from them after just playing with them a few times. Turns out the guy that she got the kittens from ending up telling her that his daughters had "this ringworm thing" and he had no idea that's what it was until she told him her grand daughters got it! Ugh!

I believe MyFairLacy said there is a blacklight test the vet can do..... have the vet do that for you and maybe the skin scraping also. I can't believe he's treating this like it's something in the inner ear. That sounds weird to me. After seeing those pictures, I would definitely assume that a vet would have scraped it or something.

My vote is still allergies! Are your baby's ears warm to the touch and red? Is he rubbing them into the ground at all? Tino's ears went from just red to scabby, just like the pic you posted, overnight! I took him to the vet the next morning and sure enough, it was allergies. I had given both he and his yorkie sister boiled chicken that evening and turns out he was allergic! I had to keep the scabs moist and give him a baby-dose antihistamine...but it cleared it right up. He was miserable, but at least now we know.

Thanks for all the information! Now I get to call vets and decide which one to go to. I just hate doing that over the phone. I wish there was some way I could just know which one is the best... Wouldn't that make life easier? LOL

I was frustrated with the vet not doing more. She didn't even LOOK at the top of his ears as far as I could tell. She used to do such a good job... :(

Right now, Marty is taking two antibiotics/day and also has a medicated wash that we apply twice a day called Malaseb Flush. We've been doing this for about a week now and no improvement...which would make since if it's a fungus and not bacterial. :mad:

The vet has said before that he has allergies, but nothing in his environment recently has changed. No new food, no new shampoos, etc. His ears don't seem to hurt or bother him in any way. I can touch them and he just lays there like normal. There isn't any redness either.

I'm sorry your little guy had to go through that.

I tried to edit my post to add more but waited too long. Here's what I tried to say...

So I went and looked at those pictures again and I think if it IS indeed ringworm, it has progressed to the point where you can't really see the "ring definition" so well..... does that make sense? With ringworm, once it scabs over it's hard to see the ring shape. But it does still look like there's no hair in the inside of the circle.

I would think that it would be much easier to specifically look for the ringworm and then if it's not, go with the allergy issue. Allergies can take a long time to pinpoint so why not get a definite answer regarding the ringworm and then work from there. A good vet should be able to tell if it's ringworm with specific simple tests. And yes, since ringworm is fungal, there are specific things that have to be used on it. We had a shampoo and a topical ointment specifically for fungal issues.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks so much for the advice! I will definitely keep you informed.

I feel like such a bad mommy if it's ringworm and I didn't notice it before it scabbed... :(

Oh don't feel that way..... a lot of people don't know what ringworm looks like. I feel like an expert though ever since my children got it so bad. Now, THAT makes you feel like a bad mommy! ;)

Wishing you the best...please keep us informed :)

The best way to find a great vet, imho, is to go to the YTCA website and find a breeder in your area, then call and ask them for a recommendation:thumbup: That's what I did, and the breeder was very happy to help and we love our new vet:)

problem
 

It is not ringworm..it is veyr contagiosu and to humans also...I would look for a vet who knows how to treat allergies...change his food and give the proper meds for allergies. best wishes

Really, you think it's allergies? Wow, I've never seen an allergic reaction like that or seen anything but ringworm scab like that. Like I said though, Tatum has not had any allergy problems so I definitely bow to your expertise. Hope she finds out soon.

We went to a new vet today, and did a few tests to find out what it could be. She did a culture (which will come back in 10 days), and also looked at his ears under the Blacklight. She is fairly certain that the problem is ringworm, since his ears glowed green under the blacklight, but we have a follow-up appointment Jan 25th. We were much more impressed with this vet. She made sure that we understood everything she was talking about, and was super nice. I think we have found our new vet.

great news..glad you found one you're satisfied with..that's the main thing, is that you have faith in your vet

sorry...I think I posted my response late at night before I went to bed and didn't see this thread again until just now! I'm glad you found out it is most likely ringworm. Hopefully some antifungal medication will help and take care of it. On my cat that has broken out in it before, I had to use a combo of pills AND shampoos/creams. With Lacy got it once, she just had one scabby area...it started out round and scabbed over with hair around it..I put a little cream on it every day and it went away just fine.

We have an antifungal cream now and also the wash that we've been using for the past week. The vet said we should see improvement fairly quickly IF it's ringworm. She also mentioned that she was worried because the scabs are bilateral (on both ears in the same location). She says ringworm is usually random and wouldn't show up in a pattern like that. We're hoping it's ringworm or we will have to do more extensive testing to find out if it could be a condition similar to lupus. I can't remember the name and tried doing a google search but couldn't find it. The disease she's concerned about is not as bad as lupus, but works similarly. I wish I could remember the name. We are hoping and praying that it's just ringworm or allergies. The next ten days will be difficult...

Another thing that's hard is that Marty and Maddie can't see my mom now for quite a while because of her chemo. She would be very susceptible to getting the ringworm (again, IF that's the problem). She doesn't need another thing to deal with on top of all her treatment. It's going to break her heart (and mine) to have to keep them away from her. :(

Oh, and Brendon said that the black light test glowed, but I don't think it did. It was very faint and I think it was supposed to be bright green if it was that type of ringworm.

I would have never guessed ringworm for the problem either. I hope that Marty is doing better! I am really curious what it is though so keep us posted if you will. It\'s amazing how allergies affect animals and people. Plus I hope your mom is feeling better. Take care, Tracy

Well, the tests came back negative for ringworm. There was actually no growth at all. So tomorrow we go back to look into other options and possibilities. :( Maybe it *was* allergies after all.