Cat has bad case of ear mites

[Hvítr Ormr]

Hi everyone, unfortunately one of my cats has a very bad case of ear mites. She's constantly scratching at both ears until the area around them bleeds, and inside one ear she has this very thick, dark earwax buildup. I've taken her to the vets twice over this, but so far they've been unable to help her. Does anyone here know what will work? I've looked at a few methods online but I'm not sure I trust any of them. My poor little cat is really suffering, it's very upsetting to see.

 

[Ghost in the Machine]

Hi everyone, unfortunately one of my cats has a very bad case of ear mites. She's constantly scratching at both ears until the area around them bleeds, and inside one ear she has this very thick, dark earwax buildup. I've taken her to the vets twice over this, but so far they've been unable to help her. Does anyone here know what will work? I've looked at a few methods online but I'm not sure I trust any of them. My poor little cat is really suffering, it's very upsetting to see.

Frickin' vets these days...

I recommend you use mineral oil but just make sure that it's warm in temperature (NOT HOT) before you draw it into a dropper of sorts or an ear syringe bulb (you can purchase either of these at your local pharmacy). You can place the bottle of the mineral oil into a pot or bowl of warm water for at least half an hour to warm it up before using it.

You're going to need to squeeze this oil into both of your cats ears to saturate the entire ear canal, 5 to 10 drops for each ear, don't actually stick the dropper inside of the ear, you can just hold the drop just above the opening of the ear. After you've put in the drops, massage the base of your cats ears from behind to try and move the oil deeper into the canal and you can try and gently hold your cats ears closed for a couple of minutes to let the oil settle a bit before they shake it all out.

Next grab a cotton ball and dip it in the mineral oil and wipe the oil onto the inside of the cats ears outside of the canal to make sure you get everything, do this for both ears. Wait a couple of minutes and then use the same cotton ball to gently wipe off any crusty debri from the mites out of your cats ears. I'd advise against the use of any swabs or q-tips as your cat might shake their head and you could accidentally puncture their ear-drum.

Do this twice a day every day for 7 to 10 days and if there is improvement and so long as no allergic or irritated reactions to the oil occur for your cat, then continue for another 2 to 3 weeks to ensure that all of the mites die. I would recommend additionally that you treat your cat using selamectin (you can purchase this from your local vet) after the 10 day mark, this is applied to the back of the cats neck only and is a powerful parasite controller, this will prevent reinfection. If you have other cats or dogs that are not infected with the mites I would suggest treating them with the selamectin too to prevent any surviving mites potentially migrating to them.

 

[Hvítr Ormr]

Thank you for the in depth reply, but I've had a lot happen over the past month or so I've only just seen this, so sorry for the late reply. I did see something similar to what you describe here and I was trying that for a while with a little success, but I think your method will be better so I'll try that next. The only problem is I don't think I can get hold of Selamectin where I live (I don't live in the US) so I'll have to see if I can find something similar that works. Thank you again, I appreciate it.