Feline owner newbie...are these ear mites?

[luck11]

Hi all. New this forum and new to cat ownership (well, had a cat when I was a teenager a looooooong time ago!) We adopted a 5 yr old male tabby from a reputable local rescue. He was in bad shape when they captured him. Fur loss, weight low, mite infestation. He was taken to vet for full battery of blood tests, fiv etc, dewormed, deflead, mites as well, microchip, vaccinations. He was already neutered, else that would have been done...as it should be done for all cats. Spent 1 month with rescue founder to nurse back to health, then 1 month with a foster. He was on Hills GI kibble and Royal Canin GI wet. After those 2 months, we adopted and were told we could transition to a better, higher protein food, which we did.

We noticed fairly dirty ears after week 4 or 5 and cleaned them with a solution by Virbac a few times, but it keeps coming back. We did research about what to look for for mites, but really hard for us to tell because we have no baseline on what regular wax and dirt looks like, and pics online are mostly of mite infested ears.

So, he doesn't scratch his ears, and rarely if ever shakes his head. He has been scratching his throat area and sometime his chin, maybe 4-5 times a day. Nothing visible there...ie on skin , fleas etc. He only really scratches his ears a bit and shakes after cleaning, which is normal I suppose. He does not like the ear cleaning fluid in ears. We cleaned his ears about 4 days ago, and we're seeing build up again. See pictures below. No odour from his ears either.

With pandemic in full force and numbers peaking, we are in a lockdown, with only essential services open. I would prefer not to go to vet for this reason only, but will if necessary...ie start seeing scratching or other symptoms of the ear.

Appreciate thoughts on whether anyone can tell if the situation in the pics is mites or just regular dirt/wax. I have a sneaking suspicion, it might be mites, given the dark colour and bits that look like coffee grounds...which seems to be telltale signs of mites.

Thanks in advance

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PXNNBp ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PMTR9a ... sp=sharing

[Kay]

I'm no expert on ear mites, or indeed any other cat's ear problems, but I did once have a rescue cat with bad mites, and the muck looked to be much deeper in the ear canal than in your pictures, and he scratched his ears constantly

if your boy doesn't seem bothered, and there is no evidence of any infection, I'd be tempted to leave him be for a couple of weeks and see if it, whatever it is, clears up or gets worse

I cleared up Tosker's mites with a couple of spot on doses of Advocate, which works on other beasties too, but has to be on prescription

[luck11]

Thanks for the reply.