Cat With Ear Mites

Topbike77

I recently adopted a cat from a local shelter, he happy and healthy but has brown stuff in his ears, he doesn't go mad itching them but he does scratch the area and shake his head now and again. Can I treat this myself or should I bring him to the vet? If so should the shelter pay for the medical expenses? I payed an 80e adoption fee and I wasn't made aware of them. It was two weeks ago I got him.

Hooked

Ronan14 wrote: »

I recently adopted a cat from a local shelter, he happy and healthy but has brown stuff in his ears, he doesn't go mad itching them but he does scratch the area and shake his head now and again. Can I treat this myself or should I bring him to the vet? If so should the shelter pay for the medical expenses? I payed an 80e adoption fee and I wasn't made aware of them. It was two weeks ago I got him.

Jack (our husky) had ear mites a few weeks after we got him. Luckily my dad gets stuff from his chemist without vets prescription. You'll need drops to clear it up. Chance your local pharmacy and save the vet consultation and fees.

Are you sure it's mites and not just wax build up? Is it like coffee granules? Does it smell?

Hooked

Hooked wrote: »

Jack (our husky) had ear mites a few weeks after we got him. Luckily my dad gets stuff from his chemist without vets prescription. You'll need drops to clear it up. Chance your local pharmacy and save the vet consultation and fees.

Are you sure it's mites and not just wax build up? Is it like coffee granules? Does it smell?

Just checked the box... Surolan is the name of the drops. For cats and dogs. Chance a large chemist.

Topbike77

Hooked wrote: »

Jack (our husky) had ear mites a few weeks after we got him. Luckily my dad gets stuff from his chemist without vets prescription. You'll need drops to clear it up. Chance your local pharmacy and save the vet consultation and fees.

Are you sure it's mites and not just wax build up? Is it like coffee granules? Does it smell?

Its more of a gooey texture not coffee granolas and not much of a smell.

boomerang

An Advocate or Stronghold spot-on, applied twice, two to three weeks apart (and certainly no more than four weeks apart) would be a more convenient way to treat earmites, and is much less stressful for all involved. Surolan is not necessary unless there's significant inflammation, itchiness and possible secondary bacterial infection to treat as well.

If there is a lot of brown wax and blackish "coffee granules" (mite poop) in there you'll need to clean the ears as well, because the debris insulates the mites from the effect of the spot-on. If it's just a little bit of wax I'd leave it alone as cleaning can stimulate further wax production.

An Advocate for cats is about €7.50 and Stronghold about €10. Strictly speaking they are prescription-only, but many vets will sell them to you over the counter.

Pumpkinseeds

The Advocate is great. In the past we've also used Canaural drops which the vet gave us and some independent chemists that have a small animal section stock them too.

Viovet and Vet Uk both sell the packs of Advocate a bit cheaper too.

lolo62

I say advocate too. It protects against all kinds of worms also..not all though so you'll need to give a wormer too (clever pharmaceutical company won't make just one to cover everything!)

Fair play for adopting! I have a rescue too and I love spoiling her

builttospill

This company are now selling a product nationwide called Parex and it's available over the counter without prescription. It's also a lot cheaper than the likes of advocate (€5 for cats) and has the same active ingredients:

http://www.cfpharma.ie/parex/

I have used it on my cat.

boomerang

Looking at that builttospill, the drug is fipronil, which will only treat fleas and ticks.

builttospill

Ah ok. Yeah I bought it for fleas. Thought it had the same ingredients as advocate.

Topbike77

Great thanks for all the advice ill pick up advocate so, and give his ears a bit of a clean!