Ringworm vs. dry skin

[mjh]

My chin has been scratching himself a lot, and he has scaling on his ears. The vet (who doesn't specialize in chins) said it was ringworm, but he didn't do a skin scraping. There are no red spots or bumps, that are typical of ringworm, which leads me to believe it is just dry sking. He does have flaky skin in localized patches (base of ear and on his side) and what looks like dandruff. How can you tell the difference between ringworm and dry skin?

[Chinchi]

If you could post some pictures of the problem areas, it would be much easier to tell you what might be going on.

With fungus or ringworm, the animal will typically loose fur, and at some point get soars.
With dry skin, you see some flake-like skin on the ears. It might itch, but shouldn't be so much that get soars after scratching.
Fungus also have a tendency to start around the nose and work it's way back on the body.

But pictures, that's the easiest way to tell anything

[mjh]

These are the pictures of his ears. What do you think it might be?

[Chinchi]

Top of the ear looks like some sort of wound that's infected...
It could look a bit like scab.
No matter what it is, it doesn't look normal, and I think you need to see a new vet about that.

I don't see anything wrong with the second picture.
The fur doesn't look all nice. It looks like it's wet or some thing. But it could also be a problem with too much earwax.

It's really easy to see ringworm. Other types of fungus can be harder to see.
But with ringworm, you have a round, red spot on the skin. It looks kinda like there's a worm just under the surface of the skin.


Can you see how this chinchilla is missing some fur on the nose?
That's a typical sign of fungus (ringworm or other types of fungus) in the skin.