Ear Mites! Please Help!!!

Ear mites are quite common in kittens and cats and sometimes hard to control. What you are doing, should work well to stop the infestation. The panalog creme is just to soothe the inflamation of the ears of the kitties as some do show a reaction to the treatment of mites. you can also stop earmites with a topical flea treatment once the kittens are old enough or by using a kitten dose of the product as the mites can live outside the ear on the fur of the cats.

Both my cats are on Revolution for fleas and earmites. It seems to have solved the problem as far as I can tell.

We tried the Ivermectin last year, and although it did solve the problem, within 4 months the mites were back. Now I have them on the Revolution, once a month in the hopes that I do not see the again.

I would agree with Daniela. Revolution is a great thing for ear mites in a multicat household. Once you apply it to the back of the neck, it works for 30 days. All you should need to do is swab the ears with a cotton ball every few days until the mites are gone. It's also safe for kittens 8 weeks old.

Revolution is wonderful stuff, just wish my vet would carry it. I got 2 Ragdolls last year, that I spent $160 trying to cure the worst case of ear mites I've ever seen in my life. Finally a friend told me about Revolution. I had to call 5 vets to find one that carried it, than beg my vet to call that one, so I wouldn't have to pay another exam & office fee for those 2 cats. One dose of Revolution, and the mites were gone.
What I can't figure out is why kittens will get mites when the parents don't appear to have any. I have 4 NFC kittens that looked fine, except one had suspicious ears. So my vet sold me Ivermectin solution for that, and I was to use a Pyrethrin based miticide on the other's, to prevent them from getting infected. I had been checking them for fleas daily, never saw any. The vet did not see any fleas. So what do you know, I put that Pyrethrin miticide in the ears of the ones who looked perfect, and all of a sudden I had dead fleas falling out of and from around their ears!!!! The kittens were 12 weeks. I washed & dipped. Fleas were still running around on those kittens 3 days later. Still could not find one on any adult cat. I had been useing the Hartz products on the adults. My vet had warned me, that it might not be the most effective stuff. Spent $200 on Frontline, put it on everyone. Bought enough for 2 more months. Sprayed my chairs, couch, carpet. Have decided the carpet is going to go. It's no wonder breeders put cats in easily cleaned cages, and keep them there.

One thing to know about ear mites is that a cat HAS to be exposed to another with the ear mites. It's very common for outdoor cats to have them and they pass it onto other cats. Although kittens are much more vulnerable, adults can get them as well. In an ideal situation, if you bring a cat home with mites, they are treated properly and there's no way for them to come back unless exposed to mites again or if the treatment didn't work. Which is why it's best to always consult a vet in this situation. Most over the counter products are junk.
As far as fleas, they have no relationship to mites at all. Once you have fleas, it take a tremendous amount of time and product to rid the house and cat of them. The over the counter products aren't effective and especially Hartz has been known to kill a few pets.
If you get a kitten from a pet store, street corner, or shelter there is a very high chance that they have both ear mites and fleas. There is absolutly no excuse for a cat coming from a breeder to have them. It's part of the responsibility of a breeder to keep thier cats healthy and parasite free.

Well, I guess I'm learning a lot about fleas. It's now been 4 weeks, and $700 later. Frontline did absoulutely nothing for the fleas running around on the kittens. The drug isert claims that all adult fleas will be dead in 24 to 48 hours. They LIED. I could chase fleas right through the spot where I applied the Frontline. Didn't slow them down a bit.
So bought every can of premise spray that the local farm store had. Plus a couple cans of really expensive stuff from one vet. Suppose to work 7 months. Tore my carpet out of the living room. Put in linolumn. Burned all my drapes. Sprayed baseboards & drapes in any rooms I allow the kittens. Sprayed recliners, including underneath, several times. Took couch all apart and soaked it.
Washed them again in cat flea shampoo, still running around, and stuck on. Then got Adams Nylar IGA inhibitor spray. It said not to soak cats, so I only soaked necks, back spine, and underarms where fleas like to hang on. So much for not soaking, they just moved to a different spot. Another week went by, kittens still with way to many fleas that I could find. Of course litter boxes being bleached every other day. Started putting borax in bottom of box. Pet groomer had told me to do that.
At this point I was up to $600, and really getting disgusted. Obviously 2 vets couldn't sell me the right stuff, so I started looking for something off label. Pet groomer also told me that Palmolive dish washing liquid, 4:1 would take every flea off. So back to town I went. Picked up 6 bottles of Rid, (it has .33% pyrethins, same as in cat dip, only in human lice shampoo, and no directions for diluting) A big bottle of Palmolive. The clerk did look at me a bit funny with the stack of head lice remover.
Soaked them all down with the lice soap, washed it all off, along with a ton of dead fleas. I started at their ears to keep the fleas from running and hideing there, and lightly with a cotton ball, worked on the face also. Rotton fleas ran right into their eyes to hide from me. Resoaked with Palmolive, washed that off, then splashed on some cat shampoo, and washed it off again.
The kittens are running just as fast as ever. No apparant ill effects. and the wonderful part, Not a flea on them !!!. When they have gotten a little oil back on their skin, I'll repeat the Frontline. Maybe it will do some good, for any fleas trying to reinfest them. The only thing I can do, is keep working on premise control, and wonder where the fleas came from. Plus I'll have to pick up tapeworm wormer, as I recall fleas can carry that around.

OMG! You poor thing, and all for some pesky little fleas. They sure are little buggers, aren't they?

I read somewhere about the dish detergent too, I actually think it was here. Glad to see you are now flea free!

So with the Revolution, you just use it like regular flea application and it kills the mites also?

Our new kitten has them, I tried the harts over the counter stuff, but it was a miserable thing to apply etc, then I was worried about her getting it in here eyes (she kept shaking her head etc) She does not have bad mites but just every once in a while itches/holds ear funny and has the characteristic blackish wax gunk. Shes had all her shots and I don't really want to have "full blown" vet visit if some Revolution can work.

Thanks, Melissa