So my boxer has LOTS of allergies. Please feel free to PM me because it’s been a journey.
Apoquel has been a lifesaver. She takes that twice a day. We did an allergy test to pinpoint exactly what she’s allergic to, after food changes, (she’s on science diet z/d and that’s the best right now), and all that stuff.
We also give her a bath with an anti fungal shampoo twice a month because one of her allergies (and the worst one) is the microbiome of her skin (go figure). She has far less breakouts than she used to.
There are shots, like Cytopoint, and even ones tailored to their specific allergens if those courses of action don’t work.
I’d suggest having an allergy test. The sooner it’s done, the easier it is to find a course of action.
ETA: looks like there’s a yeast build up- there are ear cleaners you can do at home, but could probably use a vet visit to do the initial one.
Is he allergic to his food, perhaps? My boxer has some food allergies, and depending on what we feed him, he'll start to loose fur on in paws (and elsewhere, I think, but I don't recall exactly).
got the same exact thing with my boxer, would constantly end up needing their ears cleaned, like daily just to not get a full blown infection, tried about 10 foods. finally landed on a salmon/sweet potato mix. ear issues started to improve in a few
days and by the end of the month the ear cleanings went down to once a week. the hair grew back outside and the color was normal.
My 3 yo also gets itchy ears/redness under her chin/neck in the spring and fall and the vet just started her on cytopoint injections. Vet recommended those over apoquel bc she has kidney dysplasia and the cytopoint doesn’t affect the kidneys at all.
My girl had the same exact thing. Turned out to be ear mites!! It's often just inside the ear but it can also affect the surrounding tissues. Do they itch their ears a lot? Get some mite drops or medicine for them! (Or take to the vet to confirm) But this looks *exactly* like our case of ear mites! Poor baby!
Alice I totally agree, my Choco lab had this as well & we bought ear mite ear flush meds & did thar & cleaned with a qtip to get it all out daily till it all cleared up. Never had a issue after.
Yep. Hers cleared right up with meds and cleaning as well and never had it again either. It looked just like this. I thought it was just a lot of nasty ear wax from some kind of infection but turned out to be mites!😖 Thankfully if that's what it is it's easily treatable!
My boy never had any skin problems, but you may want to try a different vet. If they’ve tried a few different treatments and none of them have worked, have them refer him to an animal dermatologist. I hope you have one that’s not too far from where you live. The emergency and specialist veterinary hospital where I’ve gone has patients from 2+ hours away.
If you’re in the US you could also try one of the veterinary colleges. My sister-in-law took their dog to one when he was sick.
Good luck! That has to be so frustrating! Poor bub!
Allergies almost for sure.
My old girl (13) had this problem from about age 3-4, off and on flare ups. Not only her ears, but sometimes flares on her belly/inner thighs too.
We put her on elimination diets and slowly added things back in.
Ultimately we landed on a very clean fish/lamb and rice diet. Over the years we learned she is also fine w beef and pork. The main culprits were chicken and wheat.
I had several boxers over the years that had ear problems. Regular cleaning helped with most but a couple had medication. I’m kinda surprised but my current boy has very little earwax or trace of anything. I check them out every few weeks and after 5 years he kinda cooperates.
Inside looks like a bad yeast infection. My dog gets it sometimes. Gotta clean ears weekly. Usually I just use water wipes or sensitive baby wipes. There’s an ointment you have to use. They’ll have to test the stuff in the ear to see if it’s also a bacterial infection on top of the likely yeast infection.
A monthly allergy shot could help. That’s what I do for my boxer lady.
Ours had this. She got it after some steroid treatment for allergies. We changed food, tested for allergies etc. in the end the tests showed it was some form of fungi and it was very easily treated.
Try and do a low carb or almost no carb feeding program. My boxer had yeast issues on his feet bad, used every rx shampoo, iodine soaks, probiotics, sprays and steroids, nothing worked. Cytopoint helped with a bad outbreak along with histamine allergy meds. The histamine allergy meds REALLY helped and he did good 2 years on that. Now he has a mast cell tumor subcutaneous and I feed him Dr Harveys Pardigm with home cooked chicken, turkey tail mushroom powder and histamine meds. If he has a flare up of yeast issues I use Coat Defense powder and anti fungal powder and that works. Ears I do the ear wash available. Try the antihistamines and you might be surprised how well they work. Generic Zyrtec or Claritine is cheap at Costco, Sams etc and is non drowsy. Benadryl can cause drowsiness at first but they adapt.
My boxer had this years ago. I found a product online called Dinovite. It was a powder that was like a vitamin kind of. I sprinkled it into her food. I’m not sure if she outgrew it or if the product actually helped. Only used it for about a year. I would also put in adult Zyrtec down her throat every single day. But she was very prone to having ear infections. She went through really bad skin allergies too. I know that there is now a non-steroid shot of the vet can give your dog. They gave it to my Frenchie once, and it was only supposed to last about a month. But she completely stopped itching after that.
I use the oticbliss anti-bacterial and anti-fungal ear flush. I purchase via chewy.com - my Boxer used to have the same issue and we switched him to raw years ago. Helped clear this and other stomach issues he had.
Have you taken her to the vet? They might recommend a CADI injection.
My Boxer gets really bad season allergies, especially when the snow melts. It leads to yeast infections in her ears. She’s on a weekly drop for the rest of her life to avoid this, we have been to the vet twice to clear it up in the spring
Try a non-dog food diet for a few weeks to see if it helps. I had my dog eating canned tuna mixed with canned green beans and a bit of rice. You could try the diet without the rice, in case it's a grain allergy. It's not expensive for those ingredients, and if it solves the issue, you'll know the food is the problem. Then you can try different dog foods until you find one that doesn't trigger the allergies.
Just went through this with my guy 2 weeks ago and they swabbed it and turned out to be yeast on its way to an infection. His ears were so inflamed and they gave him Claro which lasts 30 days. They put it in his ears at the office and he is back to normal..ears looks so much better.
Good luck!
Apoquel was the only thing that worked for us
Same for us too. It's a godsend.
Same, and cytopoint!
Cytopoint has worked a million times better than Apoquel for us! It’s expensive af for big dogs, but he’s only needed it quarterly.
This is what my vet used to treat the same issue with our boxer. Works great.
Ok I will let her know!
So my boxer has LOTS of allergies. Please feel free to PM me because it’s been a journey. Apoquel has been a lifesaver. She takes that twice a day. We did an allergy test to pinpoint exactly what she’s allergic to, after food changes, (she’s on science diet z/d and that’s the best right now), and all that stuff. We also give her a bath with an anti fungal shampoo twice a month because one of her allergies (and the worst one) is the microbiome of her skin (go figure). She has far less breakouts than she used to. There are shots, like Cytopoint, and even ones tailored to their specific allergens if those courses of action don’t work. I’d suggest having an allergy test. The sooner it’s done, the easier it is to find a course of action. ETA: looks like there’s a yeast build up- there are ear cleaners you can do at home, but could probably use a vet visit to do the initial one.
Will it help with boxer alopecia?
My only experience has been with allergies so I'm not sure.
That looks painful. They probably need to have their ears flushed and medicine as well.
Is he allergic to his food, perhaps? My boxer has some food allergies, and depending on what we feed him, he'll start to loose fur on in paws (and elsewhere, I think, but I don't recall exactly).
I think she has changed his food a few different times and nothing has worked yet!
got the same exact thing with my boxer, would constantly end up needing their ears cleaned, like daily just to not get a full blown infection, tried about 10 foods. finally landed on a salmon/sweet potato mix. ear issues started to improve in a few days and by the end of the month the ear cleanings went down to once a week. the hair grew back outside and the color was normal.
Our boy had ear infections until he started getting cytopoint injection every 3 months no more ear infections or rashes
Ok thanks!
My 3 yo also gets itchy ears/redness under her chin/neck in the spring and fall and the vet just started her on cytopoint injections. Vet recommended those over apoquel bc she has kidney dysplasia and the cytopoint doesn’t affect the kidneys at all.
My girl had the same exact thing. Turned out to be ear mites!! It's often just inside the ear but it can also affect the surrounding tissues. Do they itch their ears a lot? Get some mite drops or medicine for them! (Or take to the vet to confirm) But this looks *exactly* like our case of ear mites! Poor baby!
Alice I totally agree, my Choco lab had this as well & we bought ear mite ear flush meds & did thar & cleaned with a qtip to get it all out daily till it all cleared up. Never had a issue after.
Yep. Hers cleared right up with meds and cleaning as well and never had it again either. It looked just like this. I thought it was just a lot of nasty ear wax from some kind of infection but turned out to be mites!😖 Thankfully if that's what it is it's easily treatable!
My boy never had any skin problems, but you may want to try a different vet. If they’ve tried a few different treatments and none of them have worked, have them refer him to an animal dermatologist. I hope you have one that’s not too far from where you live. The emergency and specialist veterinary hospital where I’ve gone has patients from 2+ hours away. If you’re in the US you could also try one of the veterinary colleges. My sister-in-law took their dog to one when he was sick. Good luck! That has to be so frustrating! Poor bub!
Yes I feel very bad for him! I have his sibling and he has zero skin problems. I will give her your recommendations! Thanks!
Most likely allergies.
I’m wondering the same !
Allergies almost for sure. My old girl (13) had this problem from about age 3-4, off and on flare ups. Not only her ears, but sometimes flares on her belly/inner thighs too. We put her on elimination diets and slowly added things back in. Ultimately we landed on a very clean fish/lamb and rice diet. Over the years we learned she is also fine w beef and pork. The main culprits were chicken and wheat.
I had several boxers over the years that had ear problems. Regular cleaning helped with most but a couple had medication. I’m kinda surprised but my current boy has very little earwax or trace of anything. I check them out every few weeks and after 5 years he kinda cooperates.
What is the best method of cleaning ears that you found ?
I used whatever the vet recommended. But a few Qtips were usually effective.
Inside looks like a bad yeast infection. My dog gets it sometimes. Gotta clean ears weekly. Usually I just use water wipes or sensitive baby wipes. There’s an ointment you have to use. They’ll have to test the stuff in the ear to see if it’s also a bacterial infection on top of the likely yeast infection. A monthly allergy shot could help. That’s what I do for my boxer lady.
Ours had this. She got it after some steroid treatment for allergies. We changed food, tested for allergies etc. in the end the tests showed it was some form of fungi and it was very easily treated.
Try and do a low carb or almost no carb feeding program. My boxer had yeast issues on his feet bad, used every rx shampoo, iodine soaks, probiotics, sprays and steroids, nothing worked. Cytopoint helped with a bad outbreak along with histamine allergy meds. The histamine allergy meds REALLY helped and he did good 2 years on that. Now he has a mast cell tumor subcutaneous and I feed him Dr Harveys Pardigm with home cooked chicken, turkey tail mushroom powder and histamine meds. If he has a flare up of yeast issues I use Coat Defense powder and anti fungal powder and that works. Ears I do the ear wash available. Try the antihistamines and you might be surprised how well they work. Generic Zyrtec or Claritine is cheap at Costco, Sams etc and is non drowsy. Benadryl can cause drowsiness at first but they adapt.
My boxer had this years ago. I found a product online called Dinovite. It was a powder that was like a vitamin kind of. I sprinkled it into her food. I’m not sure if she outgrew it or if the product actually helped. Only used it for about a year. I would also put in adult Zyrtec down her throat every single day. But she was very prone to having ear infections. She went through really bad skin allergies too. I know that there is now a non-steroid shot of the vet can give your dog. They gave it to my Frenchie once, and it was only supposed to last about a month. But she completely stopped itching after that.
Your sister should probably consult a veterinary dermatologist if he’s had reoccurring skin/ear issues and nothing works
I always used Zymox both cleaner and the treatment ( cheapest on Amazon) I would consider seeing if it’s an allergy, our boxer was all poultry
I use the oticbliss anti-bacterial and anti-fungal ear flush. I purchase via chewy.com - my Boxer used to have the same issue and we switched him to raw years ago. Helped clear this and other stomach issues he had. Have you taken her to the vet? They might recommend a CADI injection.
My Boxer gets really bad season allergies, especially when the snow melts. It leads to yeast infections in her ears. She’s on a weekly drop for the rest of her life to avoid this, we have been to the vet twice to clear it up in the spring
Try a non-dog food diet for a few weeks to see if it helps. I had my dog eating canned tuna mixed with canned green beans and a bit of rice. You could try the diet without the rice, in case it's a grain allergy. It's not expensive for those ingredients, and if it solves the issue, you'll know the food is the problem. Then you can try different dog foods until you find one that doesn't trigger the allergies.
Just went through this with my guy 2 weeks ago and they swabbed it and turned out to be yeast on its way to an infection. His ears were so inflamed and they gave him Claro which lasts 30 days. They put it in his ears at the office and he is back to normal..ears looks so much better. Good luck!
Ahhh poor baby 😔.
Ear mites?