Why is my dog scratching his ear until it bleeds, but the vet found nothing?

These signs could be compatible with an otitis (inflammatory or infective most of the times). Often otitis can have an underlying allergic predisposing disease. A check up should be ideally seek to confirm this clinical suspicion and have it treated appropriately. Antibiotics and anti-antiinflammatory ear drops are probably needed. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Considering the signs you described and the pics, this presentation is likely to be due to an allergy, although skin infections or mites could be responsible for it as well. First, to rule out skin parasites, I would recommend to ask your vet to prescribe a good quality flea treatment and perform some skin tests to rule out infections and mites. If all the tests are negative, allergies can be considered and treated.

Hi there. Unfortunately, these photos are very blurry, so I can't really see much. But, if he is scratching his ear until it bleeds, it's likely that he has an ear infection - this is a common problem in dogs. He will need prescription ear meds from your veterinarian to treat the infection, so I would recommend taking him in tomorrow for an exam. In the meantime, you can try cleaning his ears with an over-the-counter ear flush labeled for dogs such as Mal-Acetic or Epi-Otic. This will not treat the underlying infection, but may help to make him a bit more comfortable until you are able to see the vet.

Because it is localized to the one spot than you can alternate neosporin with cortisone cream to help keep it clean and take away some of the itching. It does not appear scarred so hair should regrow when it heals. If it doesn't improve in the next day or so your vet can prescribe oral medication to help with the itching and infection

Ouch, poor Remington! You are correct - most ear infections in dogs stem from underlying allergies. Allergy issues in dogs mostly cause skin problems and ears are skin, after all. The allergies could be associated with environmental issues (atopy), food allergies or flea allergies. I can certainly see the discharge and swelling in Remington's ear. Her excessive scratching obviously indicates that she's quite uncomfortable. Allergy issues cause dogs to itch, which damages the skin barrier and then leads to ear infections from an overgrowth of yeast and/or bacteria in the ear canal. There are no effective over the counter treatments for ear infections. At this point, I recommend taking Remington to her vet for an exam and ear cytology. Your vet will be able to look at her ear discharge under a microscope to determine the type of infection present, and will then prescribe an appropriate medication based on those results. Until you get to the vet, consider putting an e-collar (cone) on Remington to prevent her from causing further damage to hear ears. I hope this helps and that she's feeling better soon!

He needs to see a vet so that they can look down inside the ear with an otoscope. Dogs have very long ear canals. The part you can see with your eyes is only about 10% of the actual ear canal. He likely has a problem way down inside: there may be a chronic infection in the lower part of the ear that is causing an issue (this is my best guess). He could have a problem with the ear drum. He could have a polyp in the ear. There are so many possibilities. If you want to get this cleared up you need to get him to a vet for an exam.

It sounds like Fen could have an ear infection. Ear infections in dogs can be caused by ear mites, yeast, or bacteria. You will need to make her an appointment with a vet. The vet can diagnose what is causing the scratching, what kind of ear infection if she has one, and can prescribe treatment for it. I hope this helps!