Ear "gland" allergy

[BrodeeKyra]

Re: female cairn terrier, age 4 years. Dec 2002 as live cut Christmas tree was brought into our house, my female cairn developed ear allergies. Looking at her eye to eye, she had two small gland like areas, one per ear, that oozed a liquid, that looked like dried brown sugar when it dried. The "glands" are on the outside edge of each ear, about 3/4" down from the peak of the ear. After the tree was removed in January, problem cleared very quickly.

This year we got an artificial tree for this reason, but "gland oozing" came back about the start of December. It has not cleared nearly as rapidly, with one ear 98% healed, and one still with small scab of blood [very small, 1/8"].

She has a brother from the same litter, who has never experienced this problems. We have also thought about holiday stress, or considered our unvented gas fireplace, which gets use thru this cold season here in TN.

Any similar problems in your cairn? Any ideas. Vet gave us topical rub for her skin, which did not help. We also tried a week of antibiodics, which helped for a few days. I do not want to use antibiodics for months.

As an ending, this does not really seem to bother the little girl, just me, but I worry about infection, or the problem worsening.

[BrodeeKyra]

Goodness..... in all cairn terrier land.....has no one's cairn experienced this ear flap problem? My little girls ear are still not totally healed. Any ideas?