Ear Dirt problem. Can you help? Is Lynn out there?

[CurlyCatz]

Sorry Pete, I dont think I was around online at the time of your last post.

To be honest I cant think of anywhere you could just buy a petri dish but presumably you can get them from somewhere, yes the vet would have had though.

Anyway I imagine you have the problem all sorted out and under control by now.  Did you find out a cause to the problem in the end ?

[Beanie]

Thanks all.

Lynn,

As always, thanks for your advice. Would I be right in assuming that I would need to get a Petri Dish from the vet?

[CurlyCatz]

Hiya Pete

The ear mite gunk looks very like ground coffee granules ,  It could of course be earmites and i also like canaural ear drops as the treatment of choice but she wouldnt necessarily paw at her ears or shake her head (some do and some dont seem bothered by it)  However depending on how long she has had this i'd be surprised if it was ear mites no one else in the house has it.

You could try to gather as much of the gunk as you can in a petri dish or similar and give this to one of the nurses to inspect under a microscope, this may identify the culprit right away (but not necessarily)

I personally would be inclined to take her to the vet  in order to elimate any other problems such as ear polyps etc.  (however if she isnt in discomfort i am sure this could wait a week or so till your regular vet came back if you wished.)

[Amanda (mad4moggies)]

Hi Beanie,

As far as i know the best treatment for ear mites is to clean out the ears and then use Stronghold in combination with medicated ear drops, usually Canaural. I think it would probably be best to go to the vets so they can prescribe all of this and they will look down the ears and confirm if it is ear mites. You usually have to treat the ears for around 3 weeks to get rid of all the life cycles of the mites. 

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

I would use Stronghold too -
Ony prob is you cant get it off the internet without a persciption and your cat has to have been seen by the vet in the last 6mths to get one !!

[hOrZa]

Does this effect my post count LOL

[Tan]

Thread edited to orginal topic.

I changed from frontline over to stronghold and it has been very good. The fleas have been no exsitant and no sign of anything in ears. You do need to treat them every month though as esp in summer, the little critters do tend to want to "rent a cat" quickly if the stronghold is wearing off.   My lads have had ear mites before on the frontline and they looked like dark brown specs. The frontline back years ago did only cover fleas and only when the fleas actually bite but i think that now frontline have other their forumulas to include other "criiters" so it maybe just a matter of changing the frontline to another packet that treats all as stronghold does (except tapeworm).

[Beanie]

Thanks for your reply Christine , I hope you are well. Long time no communicate!

[Christine (Blip)]

I will defer to others, more expert than I, for more detail about your initial query, Beanie, but I will remark this about Stronghold: Blip has almost no adverse reaction to it at all, whereas other flea (etc) treatments make her under the weather for a day or so.  So we have switched to it for that reason alone.

[Gillian Harvey]

Gill gave good advice, I'd have thought earmites too, and expect vet would prescribe drops. Mind you, I've used a product called Thornit before, which is brill and easier to administer, and less messy than drops. Its a powder, you can get it online here http://www.petmeds.co.uk/Thornit-Ear-Powder?gclid=CLeOvJLDgo8CFRoGEgodyxfLYg

[Beanie]

Hi Milly's Mum,

Thanks for your reply. No her ears don't smell.

Hi Tiggy's Mum,

Katie's exact age is unknown. Thought to be about 9. She certainly grooms herself well and can get to all her parts. Otherwise what you describe is exactly the same. Thanks for the input.

[Tiggy's Mum]

How old is Katie?  Tiggy never had 'dirty' ears until she was very elderly.  Could it be that as she gets older she is getting a bit lazy with her personal hygiene? 

Tiggy's was a dark brown waxy substance, she never really scratched her ears or was in the least bit bothered by it.  I used to clean her ears out with baby wipes and she wouldn't flinch or anything.  She went to the vets once a month for her steroid jab and the vet always used to give her a check over including the ears and never once mentioned ear mites, I didn't specifically mention her ears either but I'm sure if she had them he would have said something. 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Agree sound like ear mites and Stronghold should kill them although I think the vet may give some drops to intitially do the job quicker.

[Millys Mum]

Does her ear smell?

Stronghold would kill ear mites if there was any there  

[blackcat]

sounds like ear mites to me. Mine had a dark gluey brown substance ...

[Beanie]

Katie has a black waxy like substance in her ears. It is far more prevelant in one ear. She has had it for a while and she allows me to carefully remove it from the outer ear with a wet cotton bud extremely carefully for fear of damaging an ear drum. However, it always returns quickly.

It does not worry her too much and she does not constantly paw at either ear. Very occasionally (twice a day) she may shake her head and twitch the ear.

It is not the classic sign of ear mites which, I believe, tend to display flakey black crust. The other main sign of ear mites is continually pawing at the ear. My main vet is away at present and, whilst I haven't seen his assistant, I described in the phone and she is not too sure either. However, she has suggested the use of Stronghold rather than Frontline as it covers more than flea allergies.

None of our other 6 cats have this problem. Can anyone give some guidance as to what it could be? Have you experienced that with your cats? She does suffer from flea bites on her back despite use of Frontline on a regular basis. I groom her once a day to check this. She also had calicivirus (Sp?) when we rescued her.

Any knowledgable help greatly appreciated.