Symptoms And Treatments of Cat Ear Mites

Cat ear mites are common, especially in young cats and kittens, and provide much more than a source of irritation for the infected cats if they are left untreated. These nasty critters are tiny, crab like creatures that live in your cat's ears and cause outer-ear inflammation by piercing the skin of the ears to feed. Your cat might display signs of infection such as scratching his or her ears or shaking the head, so if you see these symptoms, it is best to get your animal checked out for cat ear mites as soon as possible.

Cat ear mites start out as a mere annoyance for your animal, but the ear mites, if left untreated, will continue to feast upon the delicate tissues of the ear and can eventually lead to complications such as a rupture of the ear drums of your cat. This particular complication can lead to dangerous problems in your cat from deafness to seizures.

Leaving cat ear mites untreated can also cause other problems. For example, a cat who is constantly scratching at the ears might tear or injure their ears, which could lead to disfigurement of the ears. You can also count on an ear mite infection to spread between your pets, not just from cat to cat but also to other pets in your home such as dogs, and can even be passed to you and your family!

Over time cats might build up an immunity to the irritations caused by cat ear mites, which explains why kittens are more symptomatic than their mothers even though the older cat harbors the mites as well. Your vet will help you to get rid of the mites, first by diagnosing the problem. He will use a microscope to inspect the insides of the ears, and will begin treating if he spots the mites in the cat's ears.

Treatment begins with the flushing of debris to get rid of the majority of the cat ear mites. This gets rid of most of the mites, but must be done carefully to avoid damage to the ears and should not be done by the owner at home. The next step is to medicate the ears with drops or other medication to kill the mites and to prevent additional infections as well as to reduce the inflammation of the ears.

The medicinal treatment should be continued for a month to safely cover the entire lifecycle of the cat ear mites. At the end of the treatment, the cat should be re-examined by the vet to be sure that all of the mites have been eliminated. Even if only one cat in your household is showing symptoms, all of your cats and dogs should go through ear mite treatment to prevent an asymptomatic carrier from re-infecting the rest of your animals.

One last possibility to be on the lookout for is cat ear mites that migrate out of the ear canal and onto the skin of the cats. In these cases, your cats should be treated with a flea treatment such as a bath or powder to help get rid of the remaining mites.