Hi, Just thought I would share, we went through something similiar with Pickles in 2004 we though he had ear mites, and they treated it as ear mites, until it just wouldn't go away. THey sent us to another vet and they eventually did surgery (they discovered he had a squamous cell carcinoma), You can read it if you like if you type in the search squamous cell pickles. We went through an ordeal but he is still here with us, although he had new issues. I just thought I would let you know, because he went through alot before they figured it out, because our original vet just said to clean them, and do the drops etc. Hope this helps. Your in my thoughts.