We have a 15 week old male Staffie, Red, who has always had waxy ears (inherited from his mum) and developed a red blotchy rash in his ears and a little between his toes. We have been to the vet, who told us it could be a number of things including allegies, mange or simply central heating. He gave us some Surolan to sqeeze in his ears and wipe around inside. The swelling has gone down but they are still a bit red and blotchy, they tend to flare up when he is hot, has anyone had this problem?

Sounds like classic signs of allergy to me; what are you feeding him? The biggest triggers are wheat, corn (maize), soya and you should avoid anything with brewers yeast in it. My dog had chronic ear infections prior to my having him, he was allergic to wheat, oats, soya, maize and beef; since removing these items from his diet he has not had one ear infection in 17 mnths.

Thankyou for replying. He is having scrambled egg for breakfast and pedigree puppy pouches with puppy biscuit at other meal times. Could it be the beef ones? I can't see any of the things you mention in the ingredients. The only different thing he's had recently was smacko's treats so we've stopped giving them (even though he loved them) and stuck with the gravy bones. I would like to try and find what's causing it otherwise the vet said he would have to go on a very strict diet for 5-6 weeks of fish, rice, etc.

Ear mites can cause problems in the dog's ears (Obviously :rolleyes:!) but also between the toes. I have read that Thornit is very good for this problem, no doubt if you put the word into ChampDogs search you'll see the discussions on this topic.

The pouches contain wheat gluten, starch and wheat flour according to my information. Puppy biscuit will be made from sort of cereal as will the gravy bones etc. Perhaps you could try something like Nature diet or Burns which may help with the condition as both only contain rice, meat and vegetables. All treats will need to be free from these things and so for example you will find most commercial dog treats contain maize or wheat and they are not particularly healthy either. You could use dried tripe, beef jerky (lungs), various fruit and veg etc.

HTH

The Vet checked for mites and infections but the ear was fine deep inside, the redness was just on the ear flap. Thankyou for all your comments, we have got to go back to the vets on Monday and we'll ask about his diet. I was always told pedigree was the best dog food, is this not the case?

Not all dogs do well on all diets; just like us :) Some living creatures are sensitive to certain ingredients just like people who are allergic to peanuts, strawberries etc and those that have to follow a gluten free diet. IMPOV less is definitely more; just a word of caution, don't let your vet necessarily persuade you to go over to a "science diet" which he may sell; it includes the same ingredients and is very expensive but is not necessarily better than some others on the market.

regards

You should ask your vet to do several skin scrappings (sometimes it takes a few to pick them up) in order to eliminate mites. My pup had the same thing and the vet put her on antibiotics for 3 weeks and gave her special allergy food. Once I took her to a specialist, he did the skin scrappings and picked up the nasties on the first slide (also watch out if you develop a rash!). One bath later in a special solution she was 100% again.

What was the special allergy food?

It's Eukanuba's FP Formula for Dermatosis.

The vet also mentioned something about central heating. Could this be the problem? He has been fine all weekend but the right ear has flared up again this morning. It all seems very confusing and could go on for ages by looking at other searches if we don't find out the problem.