# Ear Mites - help!



## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

I came over to my parent's house for the night with Odie. After I got here, my Mom said she wanted me to look at her cat's ears because she's been scratching and hasn't been able to hold her and take a peek at the same time. She has a dark crusty looking discharge in one ear and both of her ears are quite pink (she's a pure white cat). The other ear looks fine but she does have a little scratch on her head with a tiny drop of dried blood. After googling, it looks like it could be ear mites.

My Mom is going to be calling the vet tomorrow to make an appointment and I've offered to take her since my Mom will be working until the weekend. So, she'll be seeing the vet ASAP. I'm concerned about Odie. 

Am I doomed for another round of creepy parasite killing and scary medication? Does this sound like ear mites? So worried about my little girl and my kitties. I should also add that white kitty is an indoor cat who only ever interacts with Odie and no other animals. 

Should I bathe Odie before I go home tomorrow morning as a precaution? I don't have her shampoo here but could use just water. We've read that we should clean kitty's ears out and see if the "dirt" moves (gross). I'm going to feel really silly if this is nothing, but I'm so worried about subjecting Odie to harsh drugs again. 


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## ~LS~ (Oct 29, 2011)

No need to panic my darling, I promise you as annoying as they are, if caught
early they are easy to treat. There is a solution the vet will prescribe to cleanse
the ear canals. Plus I also use Advantage Multi as well, it works wonders against
ear mites, although they don't claim it. And daily cleaning of both ears, you want
to remove the debris and keep the ears dry. All of the pets need to be treated,
these parasites spread quickly from one to the next.


I have a natural remedy also, that has proven to work time & time again, if you
rather go that route, let me know.


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## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

~LS~ said:


> No need to panic my darling, I promise you as annoying as they are, if caught
> early they are easy to treat. There is a solution the vet will prescribe to cleanse
> the ear canals. Plus I also use Advantage Multi as well, it works wonders against
> ear mites, although they don't claim it. And daily cleaning of both ears, you want
> ...


Thanks LS! After reading a bit, I've calmed down a little. I thought I had an infestation of flea proportions here. I would love to hear your natural remedy! I noticed that she's lost a lot of hair on the one ear, not sure if that's from the mites or from her scratching. Looks sore. You can tell that she's not comfortable. I would love to try a natural remedy, but will still take her to the vet to confirm. If it is mites, I might end up getting her the meds but take a natural approach with my 3 since it will be early days. 


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## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

Oh should have added that we cleaned her ears out. 


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## ~LS~ (Oct 29, 2011)

Yes definitely get it checked out at the vet's. 
As for my big magic natural healing solution,
it's super simple, mix a drop of almond oil,
a drop of vitamin E, and two drops of olive
oil. Suck up that little mixture into a syringe,
and put two drops in each ear, right after
massage the ear to ensure it goes into the
canal. Then they'll shake their head a bit,
which is fine, some debris might come out,
take a cotton ball and wipe the inside of
the ear clean. Do this every second day
for 5 days. And in between simply use a
cotton with a bit of olive oil on it to wipe
the debris from the inside of the ear. The
oils suffocate the mites, and help heal the
poor ears. So the full treatment will take 
you 10 days. 


If you are not comfortable with doing this,
it's totally fine, you can get a solution from
your vet. But it's the same principle, put into
ear to suffocate the mites, massage ear, let
shake, wipe inside of ear, repeat next day.


I usually use the oils to treat, and I put Advantage
Multi too, because sometimes those nasty things
like to walk out of the ears and onto eyes, head,
etc.(usually when severely infested). So in that
case it's good to treat inside and out. I think in
your case just the oils will do.


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## CHITheresa (Apr 30, 2011)

~LS~ said:


> Yes definitely get it checked out at the vet's.
> As for my big magic natural healing solution,
> it's super simple, mix a drop of almond oil,
> a drop of vitamin E, and two drops of olive
> ...


When I brought the feral cats in the house they had them bad. I thought I got rid of them all and just other day I noticed them again. They are hard to get ride of. 
So I have been put med in from the vet. And cleaning their ears. I am goin gto try your home made remedy LS.


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## ~LS~ (Oct 29, 2011)

CHITheresa said:


> When I brought the feral cats in the house they had them bad. I thought I got rid of them all and just other day I noticed them again. They are hard to get ride of.
> So I have been put med in from the vet. And cleaning their ears. I am goin gto try your home made remedy LS.



That's exactly it, we took in many homeless cats over the years and they all had
them. I like to treat the ears for ten days because even though the ears usually
look good after a couple of days, I noticed the mites come back once the eggs
hatch. Just make sure to put a very small amount of oil, you literally only need
one or two drops maximum, you can use an eye dropper, but I like to use a
syringe, I feel I can control the amount better. Oils are very popular for treating
against mites, many people just use olive oil or almond oil alone, I like to add the
vitamin E because it makes the mixture gentler and does not cause irritation.


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## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

Thanks so much for all this info! We only had olive oil so we used that and she seemed to stop scratching. We'll find out tomorrow morning if they can get her into the vets. Kitty seems to get infections easily and once had to be put on antibiotics after fighting with this neighbourhood cat through a window! She scratched herself so badly. I'll start oiling Odie and my cats ears tomorrow as a precaution and will pick up some vitamin e. 


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## Moonfall (Nov 16, 2012)

You could also try Revolution, which is effective on most external and internal parasites. I've used it for mites in the skin before, and as long as they suck blood, it should work for ear mites too.

It's very effective, I used to laugh at the people who swear by the stuff and now I'm one of them! It's a spot treatment, very simple, and dries in 5 minutes (you can't let them touch it until it dries). It works by killing the parasites AND the eggs and is in the blood for 30 days. It is very effective, seriously.

I had a baby squirrel with a squirrel specific mange and other parasites who was pretty much totally naked. Crusty, pus covered, the whole deal. He was so infested that if I picked him up, the mites crawled off and bit ME. Used revolution to treat the bugs so his skin could heal. Almost instant. The next day, no more biting when I picked him up. He started to heal right away with the help of topical treatments and LOTS of food, hydration, etc. He was in bad shape and I feared many parasite treatments might have killed him in that state, but he handled the revolution just fine. Good stuff.

Here's the squirrel by the way, just because!
Day of rescue-
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/535335_2975331825880_34575534_n.jpg

You can see some of the bare areas there. He was worse in person..it was awful, he almost died. Much of the hair that was left was dead or stuck on only by scabs and dry blood and after the treatment, fell out and then had to grow back all new. 

And, in the pre-release cage. These are used to help them adjust to being outside, and get to know other squirrels. It helps them to be more successful upon being released, and also helps learn to forage, I always put natural food like pine cones and such in there for them to learn on. You can see what skin is showing is dark (meaning fur is starting back in) and that he is a lot less naked!
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/548365_3348083144430_425165016_n.jpg


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## MiniGrace (Oct 31, 2011)

Moonfall said:


> You could also try Revolution, which is effective on most external and internal parasites. I've used it for mites in the skin before, and as long as they suck blood, it should work for ear mites too.
> 
> It's very effective, I used to laugh at the people who swear by the stuff and now I'm one of them! It's a spot treatment, very simple, and dries in 5 minutes (you can't let them touch it until it dries). It works by killing the parasites AND the eggs and is in the blood for 30 days. It is very effective, seriously.
> 
> ...


I second the recommendation for Revolution. We have always used it to treat ear mites. Because it stays active for 30 days, it kills any newly hatching mites too. As Moonfall says, it is a topical which is applied like other monthly flea treatments. It is also what I use for Taz for heart worm preventative.


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## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

Thanks! Our vet uses Revolution and that is what will likely be prescribed if it comes to that. We don't have fleas here, but we took Odie on vacation last year and she brought them home and both her and my two cats were dosed with it and it worked wonderfully. I would just like to avoid using an insecticide if I can, especially because Odie reacts so easily to things like that. I'm still skeptical if it's actually mites or not so we'll see. They weren't able to get her into the vet today so my Mom is just going to continue with the oil. I would take her to another vet, but there are no others in town that I really trust.


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## KrystalLeigh (Aug 17, 2011)

Just thought that I would give an update and say that kitty DOESN'T have ear mites! She went to the vet and $200 later we know that she has an ear infection which is now being treated. I don't have to worry about Odie after all, but now I know what to do if we ever do get ear mites. Thanks guys!


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## pupluv168 (Mar 7, 2012)

I must have missed this thread before. I'm glad she doesn't have ear mites, they are nasty!


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## intent2smile (Dec 4, 2011)

Glad the kitty will be feeling better soon!


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