Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 8/12/2005

Question
My dog Katie is a seven-year-old German Shepard/Husky mix and she frequently scratches especially her ears. More recently I've notice that her ears are overly sore and that she scratches them sometime until they bleed. We've been treating a flea problem this summer, however, it doesn’t seem to be going away. Now the fleas are in her ears too. The fleas have also been seriously biting the base of Katie's tale and when someone scratches her lower back, she squats down and sticks her tongue out. As funny as it sounds, I'm worried it could be worse than we know. What should we do?

Answer
You should take the dog to the vet for skin treatment for flea allergies.  You should also get her on some Frontline Top Spot, which will help keep the fleas from biting her.  The vet will look in the ears to see if there is an infection that needs to be treated.