Ear Mites
Did you know sometimes you cat can have little friends crawling around inside their ears? Yuck!
Ear mites are very small organisms, so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Adult mites have 8 legs, and they live in the ear canal causing a lot of scratching and head shaking. Cats will typically have a characteristic dark brown to black debris in their ears. Cats may shake to the point of rupturing blood vessels in their ear (aural hematoma) or scratch until they cause sores and hair loss. Cats are most often seen with ear mites, but occasionally they are also diagnosed in dogs.
If you suspect your pet has ear mites, call and schedule an appointment with your veterinarian. It is important to make a correct diagnosis, otherwise the wrong medication is used and prolongs your pet’s itchy ears!
At the clinic, the veterinarian will typically examine your pets ears looking for other possible signs of scratching such as fleas. An internal ear exam may be performed as well to look for swollen ear canals, a foreign body (such as grass awns), or infection. Last, a swab of the debris may be taken and smeared on a slide to look for mites under the microscope (the slide may be stained and the veterinarian may look for yeast or bacteria that are contributing to an ear infection). Mites are not always found, but based on what else is or is not found the veterinarian will determine the best course of action. If the veterinarian does decide to treat for ear mites, a special medication will be sent home with you. This medication will kill ear mites, but it will not treat any ear infections or foreign bodies (this is why it’s important for the veterinarian to check the ears). A pea-sized amount of the medication will be applied to the affected ear canal(s) every other day for five treatments. Don’t forget to massage the medication down into the ear canal. Because this is most common in cats, you may need someone to be a second set of hands to help hold. If you have difficulty in treating your animal, please give us a call! We are happy to assist as animals usually behave a little better for us than they do at home where they are comfortable. For cats prone to recurrent mite infestations Moab Veterinary Clinic carries Revolution and Revolution Plus, a monthly topical for prevention of ear mites, fleas, ticks, and select internal parasites.
While there are over the counter medications available, we do not recommend them for a few reasons. Over the counter medications are not usually as strong as what can be prescribed by a veterinarian, and if you’re frustrated with ear mites then you really just want them gone. Second, as mentioned above sometimes suspected ear mites are not ear mites at all! We’ve had various clients come in requesting ear mite medication only for the veterinarian to discover an ear infection or grass awns. Applying medication for mites not only won’t help either of these situations, but also gets in the way of the veterinarian examining the ear canal (when the canal is full of fluid from medication, it’s very difficult to see anything). Last, not all medications are safe for all animals and cats especially are very sensitive to various products. Using a dog medication, even in a small dose, can be detrimental to cats causing seizures and possible death.
What if you have multiple pets? It is likely you will need to treat all pets within your home that exposed to the affected pet. Ear mites are transferred by close host contact, and while transmission through the environment isn’t thought to be an important factor it can be possible.
https://capcvet.org/guidelines/otodectic-mite/
Ear mites are very small organisms, so small they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Adult mites have 8 legs, and they live in the ear canal causing a lot of scratching and head shaking. Cats will typically have a characteristic dark brown to black debris in their ears. Cats may shake to the point of rupturing blood vessels in their ear (aural hematoma) or scratch until they cause sores and hair loss. Cats are most often seen with ear mites, but occasionally they are also diagnosed in dogs.
If you suspect your pet has ear mites, call and schedule an appointment with your veterinarian. It is important to make a correct diagnosis, otherwise the wrong medication is used and prolongs your pet’s itchy ears!
At the clinic, the veterinarian will typically examine your pets ears looking for other possible signs of scratching such as fleas. An internal ear exam may be performed as well to look for swollen ear canals, a foreign body (such as grass awns), or infection. Last, a swab of the debris may be taken and smeared on a slide to look for mites under the microscope (the slide may be stained and the veterinarian may look for yeast or bacteria that are contributing to an ear infection). Mites are not always found, but based on what else is or is not found the veterinarian will determine the best course of action. If the veterinarian does decide to treat for ear mites, a special medication will be sent home with you. This medication will kill ear mites, but it will not treat any ear infections or foreign bodies (this is why it’s important for the veterinarian to check the ears). A pea-sized amount of the medication will be applied to the affected ear canal(s) every other day for five treatments. Don’t forget to massage the medication down into the ear canal. Because this is most common in cats, you may need someone to be a second set of hands to help hold. If you have difficulty in treating your animal, please give us a call! We are happy to assist as animals usually behave a little better for us than they do at home where they are comfortable. For cats prone to recurrent mite infestations Moab Veterinary Clinic carries Revolution and Revolution Plus, a monthly topical for prevention of ear mites, fleas, ticks, and select internal parasites.
While there are over the counter medications available, we do not recommend them for a few reasons. Over the counter medications are not usually as strong as what can be prescribed by a veterinarian, and if you’re frustrated with ear mites then you really just want them gone. Second, as mentioned above sometimes suspected ear mites are not ear mites at all! We’ve had various clients come in requesting ear mite medication only for the veterinarian to discover an ear infection or grass awns. Applying medication for mites not only won’t help either of these situations, but also gets in the way of the veterinarian examining the ear canal (when the canal is full of fluid from medication, it’s very difficult to see anything). Last, not all medications are safe for all animals and cats especially are very sensitive to various products. Using a dog medication, even in a small dose, can be detrimental to cats causing seizures and possible death.
What if you have multiple pets? It is likely you will need to treat all pets within your home that exposed to the affected pet. Ear mites are transferred by close host contact, and while transmission through the environment isn’t thought to be an important factor it can be possible.
https://capcvet.org/guidelines/otodectic-mite/
