Are these ear mites in my dog's ear?

Hi all, I am pretty sure these are ear mites. If they are I would rather just buy the spot treatment from pet smart rather than take her to the vet. Thanks all :)

Hello!  I'm afraid it's not that simple.  Specialists now think that most of these dark, sticky ears are not caused by ear-mites at all, but allergy or irritation of some kind, which leads to a proliferation of wax (ear lining cells make wax when they're stressed).  Ear-mites may then go and live in the wax because it's warm and proteinaceous (they like to eat it), but unless there are lots of ear-mites, they don't cause much harm and generally aren't the initiating problem.  What can happen however, is that the ear gets itchy eg due to allergy, and then the dog scratches and makes tiny micro-fissues (microscopic cuts / breaks) in the delicate ear lining.  Bacteria and yeast (dogs skin is covered in these naturally, all the time - including the skin down the ears) then move into the skin through these fissures and can cause infection.  Generally, the way forward is to treat whatever is irritating the ear-lining in the first place, but that can be difficult to identify.  Sometimes vets will still give ear-drops with anti-bacterials or anti-yeasts in, or sometimes they treat ear-mites just in case but most often, they use anti-inflammatories eg steroids, to stop the itching (the ear has an antibacteria/ yeast system of its own).   Unfortunately, ears that get inflamed like this once tend to do so again and again.  Indeed ear disease is thought to be chronic - a low-level life-long disease - which can be controlled with drugs, rather than 'cured.'   Unless the cause of the inflammation (eg what they 'allergic' to in the first place) is taken away.    Vets tend to get to know our ear patients and their owners very well - ear disease caused by allergy is one of the most frustrating illnesses we treat.  If an owner is interested in getting to the bottom of the problem, some vets will refer to a dermatologist (skin expert) very early on.

I suppose that what all this is leading to, is that although these looks like 'only ear mites,' I don't think I've ever seen a case of 'only ear mites' in a dog; very often they mark the beginning of allergic skin disease.

It is likely that a substantial proportion of unlicensed ear treatments are inappropriate; although some of them may kill some ear mites that are present, it is possible that they may not be treating the cause of the problem.

A diagnosis would be the best way forward, but failing that allowing the vet to treat the symptoms to keep the ear as comfortable as possible is a good idea.

Just to be clear, I am not being deliberately evasive;  I cannot see any earmites on the pictures (indeed, they are very, very small) but rather dark wax.  Hopefully the above gives you lots of information as to how dark wax can come about;  your vet can obviously help you to be more specific about the cause in your dogs' particular case.