I have a three year old male that has been diagnosed with ear vasculitis. The symptoms are lesions that appear on the ear tips. I have taken the dog to the vet school at the University of Illinois and he is being treated with pentoxifilline and protopic ointment. Results sure are slow, however. Notches are appearing on the edges of the ears where whe skin is sloughing off. Anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks for note... cute pooches. My wife and I also have two: Mo - the one with the problem, and Buster. Mo is so named because he is from Missouri.

The first vet diagnosed the problem as ringworm and I treated with an anti-fungal for several weeks to no avail. Next vet said it was ear margin dermatitis and included the benzoyl peroxide as part of the trearment. He also suggested taking Mo to the University of Illinois vet school if it did not improve. There it was diagnosed as ear vascutitis which is an inflamation and shutdown of the small blood vessels in the ear tips. Like ear margin dermatitis, the basic cause is unknown. Mo is on several different meds and the vet is reassuring that it can be controlled, but it can't be too fast for me.

Aha!  I bet that is what KS has!!!!!   I just read an article that said ear vasculitis was thought now to be associated with Jack Russells, so it would stand to reason it would hit Ratties too.  I have a call into my vet - Stacey is at continuing ed. but her partner is going to call me and he is a Jack Russell man! 

Is this what they look like?

http://www.rat-terrier.com/Home/tabid/37/forumid/10/postid/235240/view/topic/Default.aspx

And what exactly is the treatment you are using?

Really?  well then it definitely could be the grain in those biscuits....Thanks Sarah!

Can you give me the site of the article, MB?

I just had a long talk with Stacey's partner.  He said ear vasculitis could be caused by mutltiple things - basically it is poor blood supply to the ears and sort of a generalized term.  I know that is true, as I have a friend with vasulitis.  It can be associated with auto-immune conditions, etc from what I understand of her condition.  He asked if the tips of Katie's ears felt cold - and yes, I think they do.  He has some ideas and is also going to do a little research (I adore this vet).  Then Monday, I am taking Katie in and he and Stacey are going to take a look at her  together (Stacey will be back by then) and put their heads together.  We are really trying to avoid an ear biopsy -- but she has very thin hair on the ear margins and about the upper 1/4 of one ear and now it's starting more on the other.  The skin is slightly thick, but mainly looks weird - sort of dry and scaly.  I am continuing with the benzoyl peroxide, etc in the meantime. 

I will let you know what I find out on Monday. 

Also, if anyone else has a problem like this that has not posted about it, I think it would be helpful to hear your experience.  Dan has had jrt's and he said he actually had a jrt with a similar problem years ago, but the lotion he gave me cleared it up in his pup.  So, we'll see.

Jan, the site is: http://www.mckeevervetderm.com/ it won't let me copy the article (it's a pdf file) but I'm emailing it to you.

Jack's ears started the same way. They are attributing it to the CDA now, but I am not buying it. He initially had scabbing on the outer margins of both ears. Since winter came again the scabs have been gone, but he really has no hair on his ears at all. I guess we will see what happens with the return of warmer weather and more time spent in the sun.

Here is the summary of one article I found at :

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-3164.1996.tb00235.x?journalCode=vde

"Abstract A new, possibly breed associated, vasculitis of Jack Russell Terriers is described. Lesions include alopecia and focal crusted ulcers of the distal extremities and bony prominences. Histopathological lesions include single cell necrosis of the epithelium, pigmentary incontinence, leucocytoclastic vasculitis and ischaemic degeneration of hair follicles. Dermal oedema and an infiltrate of lymphocytes and/or macrophages are often seen. Clinically and histopathologically the disease most closely resembles dermatomyositis of Collies and Shetland sheepdogs but the obvious breed discrepancy makes systemic lupus erythematosus the most likely differential diagnosis. Dapsone and anti-inflammatory doses of prednisone have proved to be satisfactory treatments."

Sarah --- One article I read said vasculitis can be an auto-immune disorder, which would tie in with Jack's problems.  Most of the online articles show severe cases with large chunks of the ear tips having died and sloughed off.  katie's is nothing like that -- but she has had some lesions and the very tip of one ear had what looked like an injury -- very small.  She has also had clustered lesions.  Her ears are not itchy at all, which rules out some other things, but is consistent with vasculitis. I don't know, Stacey will tell me I'm reading too much again - but I am not content to let this ear thing go on.  So, I'm glad we having another consult.  I compared her ears now to photos I took a month ago (when Stacey saw her) and the hair loss is no better, maybe worse.   

Me too!  Stacey told me I might have to just accept her ears - and I may have to - but it is too early to "just accept" now.  I would really like to explore it further. In the end, Stacey may be right -- but I'm hard to give up.  Ears are such an important feature of a Rattie!   We all want to avoid an ear biopsy if possible. 

Hmmm, guess my years of working for a vet and my thoughts of vet school in my high school/college days are still in my system!