Why is my dog's ear hair loss getting worse with home remedies?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Based on your description, it sounds as if Daisy may have a skin allergy or infection. If she is losing hair behind her ears, she may be scratching at the base of her ears due to an ear infection. If her ears look infected, I would recommend having a veterinarian examine her so you can get the infection treated with prescription ear medication. Below are some recommended products, which you can find online, that you can try to see if these help relieve the symptoms you are seeing. If the condition worsens or does not resolve, I would recommend having her examined by a veterinarian so that the most appropriate diagnostic and treatment recommendations can be made. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. 1. Douxo PS Chlorhexidine combination shampoo and bathe twice weekly until resolved 2. Malacetic conditioning spray and apply to the affected areas 2-3 times per day until resolved 3. Essential 6 spot on by Dermoscent 4. Douxo PS Calm mousse and apply to the entire body once daily on the non-shampoo days.

This looks highly suspicious for a demodex mite (non-contagious) problem. A simple skin test through your vet can conrim this. If mites are not the cause, then a skin allergy is at play here. These are both treatable with medications. I hope that things work out for your pet Kendra and that her skin issue resolves soon! Best of luck and take care.

This is sometimes an autoimmune disease skin issue so it’s important to have your veterinarian examine Mozzie and not try to treat it like a skin infection at home. I would be concerned that the hair loss might actually be a vasculitis and this can happen with many different kinds of autoimmune diseases. Your vet may have to do bloodwork and potentially even skin biopsies under anesthesia to figure out what’s going on. Hopefully it’s not something major, but the only way to find out is to have him checked out. Good luck!

It's probably an ear infection, often it cannot be seen from the outside. Ear infections are very common in dogs, it is usually caused by either yeast or bacterial disease. the treatment is usually simple and straightforward, you will have to take him to the vet and get the ears checked, then a prescription ear drops will be prescribed according to the infectious agent.

Hello. Otomax is a broad spectrum medication the contains an antibiotic, antifungal as well as a steroid. It is possible that the steroid is preventing the lesion from healing. I would talk to your vet about this & switching to another antibiotic such as silver sulfadiazine. If it still does not heal, the lesion may need to be cultured or biopsied to identify why it is not healing. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

It looks as if your dog has a skin infection, most commonly caused by an allergy, a skin mite (Demodex) or fleas. 

The allergy could be a due to a protein in your dog’s food or an environmental allergy like to dust, pollens, grasses, etc. 

The allergy causes your dog to itch and chew at the skin which breaks down the skin barrier. This then leads to infection. Skin infections are typically characterized by large areas of hair loss, redness, crusting, flaking, and pustules. A thorough skin examination by your veterinarian should be able to determine the cause of the itch so it can be treated appropriately. Your dog will most likely need antibiotics to help clear up the infection and possibly an allergy/anti-itch medication like Apoquel, Atopica, or Cytopoint to give some relief while the infection clears up. A medicated shampoo may be beneficial as well. I would also recommend he be on a good flea control routinely too. Once the infection has resolved a long term allergy medication (like Apoquel or Cytopoint) can be given on a regular basis to prevent any future problems. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck.

Unfortunately hydrogen peroxide doesn't help pets with any type of skin condition. In fact we don't use it for any wounds because it can potentially cause cell necrosis (dying off of normal tissue). This appears to be a deep infection, which is likely why it hasn't healed well for you. You can try cleaning it with Betadine diluted 50:50 with warm water and the hair needs to be shaved around this to allow the skin to breathe and heal well. I would not place Neosporin on a wound like this, because it likely won't help. You may be able to find a hot spot spray at your local pet store that can be used. However, there is a good chance this won't heal without the help of your vet, who has stronger oral antibiotics and topical medical sprays to take care of this properly. I would schedule an appt if the Betadine and clip are not able to improve this area well within the next few days. Best wishes getting Murphy's skin to heal. Take care.