Cats Ears

[AndyMac]

I adopted Mia 4 weeks ago from Cats Protection. I noticed she seemed to have a lot of dirt inside her ears and she would scratch at them and sometimes shake her head. I tried to get what I could with my finger nail on the most outer part of the ear but never delved too far. I took her to the vet this morning as I was concerned that she might have ear mites and now glad I did.

The vet cleaned the ears and managed to get a lot of 'muck' out with a few tangled hairs using cotton buds and a cleansing solution The vet did say there was a chance that she could have ear mites further inside the ear so I have to administer drops for a week so this will ensure the oil gets right into the ear canal. Have to say that Mia was a good girl and did not cry once.

[Ruth B]

Good luck and I hope Mia stays a good girl.

Tiggy has had ear problems a couple of times, even though we use Stronghold which does deal with ear mites, she seems prone to them. Once we only had the drops to put in, which was bad enough, last time the vet suggested we cleaned the ears twice a day and then administered the drops once a day at least half an hour after the cleaning. That became something of a performance as she soon realised what we were about to do and did not like having it done, regular timings went out the window and the ears were done whenever we could get hold of her. We just about managed the full week. Hopefully she won't have any more in the near future and hopefully once Mia's have cleared up her ears will stay clean and mite free in the future.

[Kay]

I used Advocate to clear a really bad infestation of ear mites when I first got Tosker - I don't know why vets prescribe drops when a spot on is so much easier for cat and owner

[Mayday21]

Hi we find that ear mites more prevalent summer ... hat & humidity & yiuve had some hot weather.. may be trivial info. Vivian

[Ruth B]

I used Advocate to clear a really bad infestation of ear mites when I first got Tosker - I don't know why vets prescribe drops when a spot on is so much easier for cat and owner

From what our vet said, while the spot on can keep them at bay, if they do get in and get established then they get so coated in the gunk that the spot on doesn't reach them properly, as the drops are directly applied in the ear it reaches those that he spot on can't get to, especially if the ears are cleaned properly and any protective coating the mites might have removed.

[Lilith]

Ah, poor Mia, but what a good girl.

My Emily, in the past year, has had a gunky ear and I've used drops, but quite often just cleaned it out, with a thick tissue over my forefinger (my nails are short and my fingertip is too thick to go much beyond her outer ear) and she loves this. She rams her head up against my hand and obviously gets some relief, so she's very pleased for me to do this.

Good luck to Mia