# Shiba Inu with itchy ears.



## PawsEco (Jan 18, 2010)

Hello all!

My shiba inu goes through itching spells where it sounds like she is going to rip her poor little ears off.

I have to clean out her ears once a week to keep the wax build up to a minimum. I have had her tested for mites and it came back negative. The vet says it could be mild seasonal allergies. She itches more in the fall and spring, but it is a year round occurance.

Has anyone else had this issue and could it be caused by food? She is currently on beneful.


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## Dog_Shrink (Sep 29, 2009)

It could absolutely be the food. Benifuls isn't actually that great. A lot of artificial colors and rpeservatives. You could do a lot better for the same price. One of the first signs of food allergies is chronic ear infections. Try something grain free if you can affford it if not then at least wheat free sicine wheat seems to be responsible for the majority of canine food allergies. 

You can treat the ear with some cortisone 10 cream (not gel like neosporin) to help alleviate the itch locally and moisturize insted of drugging up a dog on benadryl (some tend to get really drowzy). Or you can treat with mineral oil applied with a cotton ball. Use a regular weekly ear cleaner with tee tree oil in it, and also one that contains a drying agent to help prevent yeast infections (common with food allergies).


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## amdeblaey (Jun 27, 2009)

I would tend to think that yes it is the food-here is a good website for different foods and the ratings- http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/ If you look at the reviews and ratings-beneful has a 1 star rating. All that food is is, corn and wheats and by products-there isn't any nutrients in that food. I use to feed my lab Iams-and he started getting ear infections all the time-changed his food to a natural food-no grain food, and he hasn't has an ear infection since. As long as the vet has cleared him of ear mites and any other infections-I would go the food route.


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## PawsEco (Jan 18, 2010)

Thank you for the website recommendation and ear cleaning tips. I think I'm going to give orijen and tea tree oil a try. There seems to be so many problems with dog food!


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## amdeblaey (Jun 27, 2009)

Keep reading the food forum-people give good advice on foods. It's hard when you don't know what to look for-especially when the dog food companies sell to the humans more then whats best for the dogs. I thought Iams was good for my dogs because it's a well known brand, highly advertised-why not use it. You don't see food industries advertising Taste of the Wild, or feeding raw. It's not until I started doing my own research on foods that I realized what I was feeding my dogs-yes they can live on it-but it would be like you and I eating mac and cheese, and hot dogs the rest of our lives-do-able, but not healthy.


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