My jack Russell, Shitzhu(spelling)x has been scratching at his ear for a couple of days now. I have just had a look at it and it is a bit red inside with a few scratches where he has been scratching it but on the outside of his ear along the edges and coming out a bit further is like a flaky crusty bit which is dandruffy as well. If you gently give the hair a little pull it comes away in clumps. Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

Don't know what it is but would suspect mites, if the hair you are removing is from the inside of the ear continue to do so and then use Thornit. Or you could see the vet.

I agree with Jackie pos ear mites ...thornit is great stuff I clean the ears first with a little surgical spirit then pop the thornit in :)

I would never use surgical spirit in the ear myself as it could sting; the safest thing to use for cleaning ears is either saline solution ( the type you get for contact lenses) or colloidal silver neither of which will sting if there is an open wound and the latter has antibacterial qualities; it is something that I would never be without and is safe taken both internally and externally.  Also Surgical Spirit can be very drying and irritate an pre-existing condition.

thanks for that I use a little just for cleaning but will try colloidal thanks for that tip .

Saline solution - 1 teaspoon of salt to 1 pint of boiling water - allow to cool before use ;)

Its not hair from inside the ear, its outside on the back of the ear. He has got like a hard crust on the edge of the ear and spreading up it. The other ear looks alright.

Then sorry but off to the vets.

will go tomorrow.

It sounds like ringworm to me??

christine

went to vet yesterday. He gave me canaural ear drops. He looked in his ears but couldnt see any evidence of mites. I have to bathe the crusty bits on the outside of his ears with salt water. He thinks the crusty bits are caused by Butch scratching at his ear. I have to take him back if not better by wednesday. What does ringworm look like. I have only seen it on human not animals and it didnt look crusty, just red and shiny and a bit raised.

Ringworm looks like round, flaky sometimes hairless spots which is commonly seen around the ears,ask your vet to shine a woods lamp on the ears.But seeing you have already seen the vet i'm sure he would have picked it up if it was ringworm.It does go red and shiny after it has progressed quite a bit,did your vet not diagnose what the problem was?Why is he itching to produce the scabs in the first place????

christine