Ear Margin Hair Loss - Page 1

Anyone have any thoughts on why two of our 3 GSDs (a 3 yr old male & a 10 month old male) are losing hair on the margins of their ears?  We've done skin scrapes on both (all negative for allergies & fungus) and the last thought from our vet (about a month ago) was that they had gotten frost bite resulting in the hair loss and then calusing of the margins, which prevented hair from regrowing.  We're using dermascent now to soften the caluses in an effort to promote hair regrowth along the margins.  We originally thought it was a fungus, but nothing has shown that.    It doesn't spread anywhere (it's just the ear margins or edges).  Any thoughts on what else it could be?  We lived in Illinois and and now we live in Colorado, so we did/do have cold winters and we did/do a lot of hiking/training year round with both of them.  The 3 yr old lived in IL with us and then moved to CO with us, but the 10 month old has only lived in CO.  The strangest thing is that our oldest (5 yr old male) hasn't had any hair loss issues at all and he's hiked/trained in the same cold winters, been in the same kennels/crates, eaten the same foods, etc.  They are all on raw food diet.    

We're at a loss and of course just want to try and figure it out. I don't have photos of it handy but hopefully people have some new ideas.

Thanks!

One of my dogs has this on and off.  People have commented on it so I did my due dilligence testing swabs, scrapings, treating for several things we could never confirm, etc.  Even had Dr. Dodds run a full thyroid panel.....nothing, dog is health.  It just comes and goes.  Doesn't spread and doesn't seem to bother him.  It was worse this winter than last, but it snowed 3 inches here two nights ago and was about 20 degrees yet this morning so suffice to say this winter has been the longest, coldest winter in my life.  All the dry air probably doesn't help.

Waldo, take a look at the thread I started:

Please PM me if anything works for you.  I'm very interested in this subject.

http://pedigreedatabase.com/forum.read?mnr=779226-ear-tip-hair-loss#781690

I looked at your post ZweiGSD... thanks for referencing it.  Our dogs have never gotten as bad (red & inflammed as that photo), but I think it's something more environmental than anything.  It really started to show up in our 3 yr old male the summer of 2012 back in Illinois.  Then here in Colorado, it's incredibly dry year round and obviously, the heat has been on this winter since we got the puppy.  I have always thought it was due to dryness.  I thought the dermascent would help, but it actually appears to have made it a little worse.  We're going back in to see the vet Saturday so I will bring up some of the issues others have been diagnosed with and the treatments and see what we come up with.  

My dogs never got as bad as the photo either.  The hair fell out and they got crusty but never inflamed. The ear tips/margins looked moth eaten.  Time of year never mattered.  As much as I hate giving my dogs medication the pentoxifylline was the only thing that worked.  

Maybe it's an Illinois thing.  You're lucky you have escaped this loser state.

Has it ever cleared up in your 3 year old?  Do you remember when it started on the pup?  Anytime around the rabies vaccination?

As I stated before, I would appreciate knowing what your vet says.

It hasn't cleared up in our 3 year old since we originally noticed it.  It's never gotten much worse really until we started putting dermascent on it, which removed the caluses, but also removed some more of the hair along the margins too, so now it looks worse.  We noticed it for the first time in our 3 year old in mid summer of 2012, just prior to us moving to Colorado.  We thought it was related to an allergy at first, so we did a full allergen screen on him (which did come back with some pollens & molds, but nothing major).  We noticed it happening in our 10 month old about 2 months ago (middle of winter) here in  Colorado, so it was well after his rabies vaccine.  I'm going to bring up the pentoxifylline to our vet on Saturday and see what he says.  As I said, it was very dry when we left Illinois and Colorado is always dry.  It definitely doesn't bother either of them and it's odd that our oldest 5 year old has never had any issues... but every dog is different I suppose.   

Zwei can you talk about that drug treatment?  Was it expensive?  How long did it take? Do you keep giving it or stop once the ears heal? I'm interested in hearing more about it, you can PM me if you'd rather. I ask because I've never really bothered to treat this when my dog gets it, however I do like to dabble in UKC conformation and it seems if his ears get dry, it's always during winter which also happens to be when his coat is in the best condition, favorable for showing.  There have been times over the years I've wanted to take him out to a show but not if his ear tip is dry.

My vet gave me the prescription and I took it to Walmart (Illinois).  On 3/7/14 it was $23.92 for 60 pills.  Not sure on the amount of mg (or whatever they go by) as I don't have the bottle.  It was for a 72 lb GSD.  Dosage is one tablet every twelve hours.  My 3 year old started on 2/6/14 and by 30 days was looking good, crustiness gone.  Vet gave me another 30 day prescription but I only gave it to her for another week.  Ears look perfectly normal now.  Vet said 30 to 60 days is normal treatment time.  

I ended up giving the rest of the prescription to my 7 year old (60 lbs.).  Just finished up on 4/16.  She was on the pentox for 60 days in May 2013 and they were fine until just recently.  They didn't look that bad but since I had the extra pills I gave them to her.  Vet said that was OK to do.  Crustiness is gone, ears soft and smooth, waiting for hair regrowth.

My vet told me that stress can reaggravate the condition.  My 3 year old is due to come into heat soon so am curious if that will trigger anything.

The dry, cold weather could be part of the problem.  I'm curious to see what will happen next winter.  But, like I stated previously they would have it in all four seasons.

I'm happy to answer any other questions.

Thanks much, I'll ask my vet about this when I take everyone in for their annual heartworm blood test.

With hair loss on ear margins and allergy results popping up as negative and drug treatments unsuccessful I would highly suggest checking the dog food for chicken ingredients (including mentioned "animal fats"). Excluding chicken ingredients and switching food to a chicken free kibble (e.g. TOTW Pacific Stream)  successfully brought back the hair in a matter of weeks with two dogs I know.

Allergy tests don't test for processed chicken ingredients.