Our newest addition is a Great Dane/Lab mix named BlackJack. I took him to the vet for 2 reasons this past week. The first being that since we've had him he seems to have really soft stool and he has sporadic diarrhea despite not changing his food. The second issue is that he was scratchign a lot and I wasn't sure if he had some sort of allergy or what.

We're starting him on a food trial because my vet believes he may have a food allergy (with the bathroom problems and the constant itching and a negative skin scrape).

The problem is that he has little dry patches on his ears that come and go away and I showed them and talked to her about them. I thought it was because of the scratching and she thinks it might possibly be vasculitis that can be managed with a daily medication. She said she'd need to do a biopsy to diagnose it. I'm having a really hard time giving her the okay to do this because I'm hoping it's part of the food allergy (even though she doesn't believe it is). I don't want him to have to go through anything that isn't totally necessary especially when it comes to removing any piece of his body, even if it is a small piece.

I'm trying to do some research because I don't know anything about vasculitis and I'm hoping someone out there know something about it, has a dog with it, has any suggestion whatsoever.

Thanks!
Kirsten