Skin-Colored Itchy Bump with Darker Ring Around Edges on Inside of Dog Ear

My dog Boi has some sort of growth on the inside of his left ear that has me very concerned.

I first noticed the growth a little over 2 months ago. We were living in the state of Washington but in the process of moving to Arizona. I noticed him scratching at his ear and investigated.

The initial bump was small and the same color of his skin, similar looking to a mosquito bite on a human. I automatically assumed that he may have been bitten by some bug, most likely a spider with all the movement in the house, and that it would go away by itself and soon.

To offer some back story, Boi has always had skin and ear issues. He was a rescue and when we first got him his ears would become very inflamed and smelly and the wax build up was difficult to control. We took him to the vet where his ear cytology confirmed yeast.

He also was scratching a spot on his face below his eye towards the nose. He had no hair there and would scratch himself til he bled.

He went through a series of mitaban dips which seemingly cleared up the demodex and never resurfaced. We were given a basic liquid cleaner for his ears and a solution called Gentizol from Vet One. This combination also seemed effective and became a regular maintenance as well.

We became very conscious of the condition of his ears, if he was itchy, if they were a little more red than usual. With regular cleaning we are able to keep them clean and infection free.

Occasionally when they do get inflamed, or the skin looks particularly irritated, we nip it in the bud with the Gentizol, a few drops and the next morning he is back to normal, normal color, no more itch. This has been our routine for the last 3 years.

While the severity of demodex was never experienced again, he has a general vague itchiness that seems to always be there: under his chin, the collar area, on his back by his tail and the tail itself. He chases it daily. Nothing excessive and no big red flags like hair falling out or redness, no fleas or mites, just general vague itchiness.

The bump on the inside of his hear is something new. The bump has since grown a little in diameter but more so in height. He is absolutely miserable with ITCH.

It is difficult to tell if it is at all painful to him as the slightest touch renders him into a foot flying itch attack. We do not let him scratch it with his nails he therefore resorts to rubbing it on the ground or running to us for help.

The darker spots in the picture posted are healing scabs from the times he did get to scratch, but other than that irritation, the bump itself is still his skin color, however, there is a noticeable darker ‘ring’ around the edges of the bump.

When he cuts into it, it does bleed and the clear skin juices come out like a regular healing cut. We clean the cuts in hopes of warding off an infection on top of everything. No infection yet.

We have taken him to the vet. A few weeks ago he was looked at and had another ear cytology done. No yeast, minor bacterial growth, minor wax build up.

The vet is convinced that this and prior issues are a result of food allergy and suggested a new protein source. He gave us another medication, some tri-otic ear ointment, ordered a twice a day application for 10 days and to recheck if there was not a significant decrease in size.

Well, there has been no decrease, no change what-so-ever and I am reluctant to return to the same vet because he was very single minded and not open to any other possibilities of what this could be.

He mentioned the unlikely possibility of it being a tumor, so I asked if it was common for a tumor to cause such sensitive ITCH like this. His answer was simply that he was not so sure if the itch was from the bump or if the skin in his ear was just itchy.

While the flat area around the bump is also very sensitive to touch, the bump itself is simply not touchable. The itch caused is completely unbearable.

We have since changed his food. We found an all natural Rabbit and Potato which he seems to love, but have not noticed any difference in his overall itchiness and definitely no difference in the bump. I’m glad he likes it, but it is pricey, so I am hoping to see a positive result from this experiment.

I know it will take time, I am trying to be patient. When we first got him, it took a while to find a food that he liked or that sat well with him. We went through 4-5 different brands and he would either end up throwing it up, with diarrhea, needing to poo 5 times a day, or flat out just didnt like the taste.

There were days he would just refuse to eat. This was also how we found out he has a peanut allergy. We finally settled on Beneful, he liked it, regular poops only once or twice a day, and the Salmon one seemed to have a positive effect on his coat as it claimed. Every so often he would still have one of those days where he just didn’t feel like eating, but they were much more far and few.

Boi is generally a very happy and active 4 year old dog. He lounges and sleeps but then gets up to play. He is very affectionate, well behaved and friendly. He eats regularly, poos regularly, interacts normally.

He just has episodes here and there if the bump is touched by accident, the itch is so unbearable, he looks so miserable and I feel so sorry for him. He wakes up every morning shaking his head excessively and tilting towards the left, trying to walk and scratch at the same time. It’s just pitiful.

Please help me figure out what this is! I’m starting to really worry and I think HE is ready for this to go away. Its been long enough and the excessive shaking cant be good. I hope this is enough information for you to offer some advice.

I included two pictures to help, taken today, I hope the quality isn’t TOO poor. One close up and one of his entire ear to help you get an idea of the size. Thank you.