Small Ulcer-like Sore on Inside of my Border Collie’s Ear?
ByI have three dogs and I noticed one dog has been licking the border collie’s ear. Knowing this is usually a classic ear irritation symptom I cleaned out her ears really well with K9 Liquid Health’s ear cleaner. Her ears were relatively clean even then, meaning not a lot of “goop” was found. I repeated the cleaning for a few days after that until they seemed to be back to normal. Tonight I noticed that the dog was again licking the ear. I cleaned it out and once again there was minimal “goop” and seemed relatively clean. Then I noticed a small (about a 1/4 in. long) ulcer like sore on the inside of her ear folds. The sore isn’t on the flap of the ear, but is not deep down in the actual canal either. It just looks like a little ulcer type sore. I am pretty knowledgeable when it comes to dogs, but this one has me stumped. Her ear does not smell at all (no yeasty smell) and there is not much discharge like typical ear infections. This sore just worries me a little. She just turned 3 years old and is groomed regularly. She is perfectly fine in every other aspect (eating, drinking, pooping etc.) so I am not going to rush her in to see the vet. We live in the desert so the weather is cool right now but no rain or snow obviously. She hasn’t had a bath in a month so water couldn’t have gotten in her ear recently.
Any idea on what the heck this sore could be or what is causing it?
Thanks, I’m glad I’m not the only one scratching their head. I think I am going to keep a close eye on it and see what happens and if it isn’t getting better she will go see her vet soon. For now I have been giving her Newton’s Homeopathic Ear Care to help relieve the symptoms and just keeping it clean. She already eats a high quality food, so I really don’t think it’s a food issue. Hopefully it will resolve itself, after all nobody likes forking out $100 at the vet but if she needs to go she will.
3 Comments
December 13th, 2010 at 12:27 PM
It could very well be a yeast infection without the typical smell. If the infection was in the folds of the ear rather than in the canal itself, it might smell differently.
It could also have been something that got into her ear and irritated it.
ETA: My dog is prone to nasty ear infections if I am not diligent about the preventatives. She did have a yeast infection on the outside back of her ear once and the Vet just gave her an over the counter yeast infection cream. I believe it was Nystatin. The same thing they gave my daughter when she had a yeast infection diaper rash.
Oddly (or not) when we swtiched to grain-free kibble, she stopped getting ear infections
December 13th, 2010 at 12:33 PM
gosh that’s a tough one. maybe the last time she went to the groomers and they pulled her ear hair some skin came off too? Then she kept licking it and such and it grew? I have no idea…let us know how it turns out though!!
December 13th, 2010 at 1:24 PM
If it doesn’t go away or gets worse I would for sure see a vet…worst case scenario is it could be skin cancer, best case is it’s just a wound from the licking. It could sstill be an infection like Jennifer said, but the cleaner you used removed any yeast smell.
i’d always recommend a higher quality diet and to clean with apple cider vinegar.