Help! Ear dermatitis issue

[Clyde]

Hi I am looking for any ideas or suggestions on an ear issue my GSD Orley has been dealing with since he was about 6 months old (he is just under 2 years now).

Pictures



Mainly he has fur loss along the edge of his ears which has gotten worse recently as well his ears often look flushed and warm to the feel even when he has been resting. The skin looks course and has small red bumps. Recently I have been rubbing coconut oil on his ears once a day this seems to help mostly his ears don`t get that flushed look but the other issues are still present.

In addition he is dealing with atopic dermatitis I will give a history on what has been done so far as I am sure that his allergy issue is directly or indirectly related to his ear issue. Sorry it is a bit long!

Vet visit at 6 mo for skin issues some hair loss on tips of ears and hot spot near tail no itching at this point. Decided to just treat the spot near his tail and wait to see before doing any skin scraps.

At ~10 mo noticed alot of itching (middle of winter in Alberta). Still had hair loss along tips of ears was starting to think the ear hair loss could have to do with the cold weather.

He was itching to the point of breaking of the hair but underlying skin looked normal. Did skin scraps to check for mites/fungus/bacteria at various spots on his body. Everything came back negative except bacteria on his ears. Treated with antibiotics 14 days for his ears. I did not notice any improvement to his ears.

Had skin biopsies done which to my understanding can test for mites, fungal, bacterial, immune related skin diseases, and if the skin is having an allergic response. Results were that his skin was having an allergic response everything else was negative.

In May he was at the kennel for 22 days while I was on holidays and the kennel said they did not notice any itching and his patchy fur had grown back. Made me think that dust mites or something at our house was the cause. Started itching within hours of coming home. He does itch less when he is at work with me at a pet store/daycare we have almost no carpeting.

I could write so much more on what we have tried to help with his itching but at the moment I am most concerned with his ears. I will say that right now his itching is much improved. The things I have done recently was started using the coconut oil topically and have decided to try removing carbs from his diet just to see if it made a difference so he is just getting MBO (I have done single carb/single protein raw diets with him so homemade or prepackaged in the past to rule out food allergies). Although his itchiness has improved I think his ears are looking worse lately.

The supplements I currently give him are Salmon oil, Vit E, Quercetin, digestive enzymes and Vit C. I have read The Allergy Solution for Dogs and this is what I have been following with regards to picking out supplements for Orley. Recently I have been increasing his Salmon Oil as I have heard that therapeutic dosage should be mush higher than what I was giving him. I was giving 2X 1000mg capsules once a day. The number I heard for therapeutic levels was 1000mg/10lbs does anyone have any comments on this?

At this point I am not considering skin testing for his allergies as I would like to try to control it at home if indeed it turns out to be a dust mite issue. If you have any ideas with regards to his ear issue such as causes or things I should test for I would love to hear them. I really want to get back to the vet but I don't think my vet will have any new ideas.

Please let me know if you need any further information.

Thanks for reading sorry it was so long


Adrienne

[1sttimeforgsd]

I am of no help, hopefully someone knowledgeable will come along and have some suggestions for you. Good luck with your handsome boy.

[LisaT]

There is an autoimmune condition that GSDs can get that will affect the tips of their ears. The only names I could find were Cutaneous vasculopathy, specific to GSDs. In some cases you will also see paw issues (swelling or depigmentation), and issues with the tail or nose.

I also found this: Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) : http://side.utad.pt/cursos/storage/L...as_5_e_6.pdfIf the ears get worse when it's cold, I would do some further diagnostics, since this can be a symptom of other things.

If this were warm weather, I would suspect fly strikes.

Are you using a vitamin E with mixed tocopherols? I might look for an allergy product that contains some B vitamins, with a touch of zinc in it too.

[Clyde]

Thanks for the info Lisa I will look into both of those.

Whether his ears get worse in the cold I am not certain yet we have had an extremely mild winter so far but I would say at this point I am thinking that they are getting worse. I will have to start keeping notes on the temp and his ears. From what I remember I do think I was more aware of how bad his ears looked last winter and now this winter compared to the other seasons.

Another symptom that I think could be related and has had me concerned that there is some sort of immune issue going on is last year in Nov-Dec we had some very cold temperatures (-15 Celsius and much much colder). After coming inside Orley would develop hives on his lips and his eyebrow area. I read that this is typical of a certain type of Cold Urticaria. The skin is exposed to cold temperatures and on entering the house the skin warms up and this is when the hives appear. He did out grow this apparently? he can know go out in cold temps and this has not resurfaced.

I have to run but will try to post some pics of the hives from last winter later.

Adrienne

[LisaT]

Link got messed up: Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) : http://side.utad.pt/cursos/storage/LMV/4609/1301173108_msddc-d_imunomediadas-aulas_5_e_6.pdf

I don't know much about this stuff, hopefully someone who knows more will come by.

[mleun481]

We have a male GSD and female Shiba Inu. The GSD had a similar dryness on the edge of his ears as a puppy and the vet gave us some Animax ointment which helps and the dryness went away. For the Shiba, she is allergic to everything. She is on permanent medication for it - Temaril P when its severe itching in the spring/summer and then Atopica during the fall/winter season with some children's Allegra (disintegrating kind). Temaril P works immediately, but its a steroid so they shouldn't be on it long. Atopica is long term and works too, but it is expensive.

[Clyde]

This is what I call Orley's Klingon look the vertical ridges running between his eyes.


The second picture shows the hives around his mouth. They always went away in a few hours. After a few weeks the cold urticaria just stopped. This occurred about 2 months before his itchiness showed up.

Lisa the second time you posted the link it did not work for me either. The Vit E I have is only alpha so I will have to get a mixed one and try that out. I think I read that some people will rub Vit E oil onto the skin I think I will try this for a while instead of the coconut oil.

I did ask the vet about trying some sort of topical steroid on his ears to see if it helped with the inflammation. I cannot remember the name but it was an anti-bacterial/steroid combo I believe. It was prescribed twice a day for 14 days. By the end of the second week I thought the red bumps on his ears were looking worse.

His ears are not actually itchy. On his body he did have hair breakage due to scratching but he has never paid any special attention to his ears except scratching at the base occasionally but there is no hair loss at the base just the tips.

Adrienne