Today when Pip woke up for his midnight snack I noticed some white lines on his ears. On closer inspection we realized that they look like they are dry and some of the skin has flaked or cracked a little. It does not look like open wounds and touching them did not bother him. I saw him drink a lot of water last night and he had 2 grapes today. He did not eat very much last night though, not like he usually does. Is this normal? He is only about 16 weeks OOP so maybe he is just growing? Any advice would be great! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thanx.gif" alt="" />

Ricki

Could be getting an ear infection.
Do you have a vet that knows about gliders?

It may be the beginnings of mites, or just dry skin...let a vet make the determination. If dry skin (Riker does that) GNC's almond oil applied every couple days helps, and a humidifier. Rule out mites first, tho...as with mites, they can lose their ears entirely as they are eaten away. Keep us updated.

what does it look like if it is mites? This looks exactly like dry flaky skin to me.

Ricki

With mites the ears will gradually diminish until there are no ears left. It's always best to rule out all possibilities, though. When I can, I'll look and see if we still have an old post with pics way back from a glider that DID lose their ears.

Jen, with mites will the ears look crusty/dirty? Or will they just look like they are dry? I guess what I'm trying to get at, is visually can you tell if they are just dry or if you have mites?

Sometimes it can be hard to tell...sometimes they will blacken at the edges before flaking away. I can't find either of the threads/pics I know I saved that showed what it looked like. Some describe it as "dry looking" before they start crumbling. I wish I had a pic, but they seem not to be where I left them. I'd still recommend ruling out mites before simply treating for dry skin, tho. It could very well be just dry...but better safe than sorry.

And sometimes the mites will build up inside the ear, like a waxy red or reddish/black. Sometimes you can't see anything, tho.

Thanks Jen, I've never had to deal with ear mites before....well, my cat had them when I got her from the humane society, but she'd been on meds for it & just had to have them checked when I took her in to get her stitches out so I really didn't get to see the early stages, just the black goop they cleaned out of them.

Well, It looks like a trip to the vet is in my schedual for today:) His ears are too cute to take a chance with.

Ricki

Thanks to Xglider (THANK YOU, JOHN!!) we found the pics I was looking for. These are the end result if there are mites.

Bitsy's Ears