Help For Cats With Ear Mites

You’ve suddenly noticed that your beloved family feline, or felines, have started acting like their ears are driving them batty.  They may quickly shake their heads or constantly swiping the ears with their paws.  If you have been noticing this type of activity, then it may well be your cat has ear mites.

If you’re new to owning a cat you may not have ever dealt with ear mites on a pet before. It’s not the end of the world, nor should you panic if you see those tiny little speckles crawling around on the inside of the cat’s ears.

Just be aware that ear mites cause a lot of discomfort and even pain if the infestation is bad enough.  They are parasites and can cause severe health issues for the animal if not taken care of in short order.

As mentioned earlier, one of the first signs of ear mite infestation is a rapid shaking of the head and a twitching of the ears. The feline will attempt to scratch the irritation away.  Continuous scratching will break the skin inside the ears.

This causes tiny little scabs (dried blood) to form. Not only does the scratching break the blood vessels, it can cause scar tissue and permanent disfigurement of the ear. In addition the cats ear mites saliva causes the wax glands in her ears to work overtime. This wax of course builds up.

With the wax build up this contributes to the worsening odor which you will find emanating from the ear area. The wax build up can cause damage to the ear drum and the ear canal. This in turn will be contributing to permanent hearing loss and the possibility of other health issues for cats.

All of these problems can be taken care of quite easily with the proper treatment.

Very likely when you talk with your vet they will want to see her. And actually that’s a pretty darn good idea. The quicker your beautiful pet is started on the proper treatment the quicker she will recover.

Your veterinarian will confirm the ear mites with a relatively simple test. This test may consist of looking down into the ear canal with an otoscope. The vet may even take a sample of your cats ear mites and examine it under a microscope.

Once your veterinarian has confirmed the infestation they will likely want to do an ear flush. This procedure may be repeated 3 or 4 times. With the right solution a very large percentage of the mites will be cleansed from the cat’s ear. She will feel almost instant relief, depending on the severity of the infestation.

In addition to the flushing the vet more than likely will recommend ear drops which will attack the mites. In a lot of cases the shaking of the head and the scratching will drop off significantly or stop all together. However, it is important for you to continue the treatment as the mite’s eggs will continue to hatch up to a month after the initial kill.

It is true your cats ear mites can be dangerous to your cats overall health, but with proper treatment your feline family member will become calm and back to her old loving self.