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My dog scratches his ears a lot. What's causing it and how to help?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Chihuahua | Male | neutered | 5 years and 2 months old | 11 lbs

Hi I have a 4 year old chihuahua mix that scratches his ears a lot what can I do to help him?

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2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on March 19th, 2018

This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask the vet to an otoscopic examination (to have a look inside ear canals and possibly perform a skin scrape or a ear canal sampling- this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). 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.

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Yoshi is so cute! He could be scratching his ears a lot because he has an ear infection which can be caused by ear mites, allergies, or bacteria, or it could be because of allergies. I would take him into a vet today or tomorrow. The vet can diagnose what is causing him to scratch his ears, and can treat him for it. Good luck, I hope this helps!

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