New kitten, should I be worried?

He often scratches his ears and 'shakes' his head like a dog when a dog is wet. Is there an easy way to see if he has mites?

He sneezes some as well. And I noticed that the inside of his nose gets lined with 'thick' black residue which I clean out.

Yesterday he started eating WAY more than he had previously. He also drinks more water than I remember seeing a cat drink before and he also pees quite often. I'm assuming that's a good thing?

Thanks for your help, hopefully I'm just being paranoid!

Time for a vet check... One for the ears and two for a likely worming .. How old is the kitty??

Sorry often many of us ask lots of ???s to see if we can help

Probably has ear mites, is there black gunk in his ears? When Chloe had ear mites, she had black gunk. It's pretty common for kittens.

The sneezing could be a respiratory infection. Also common for kittens that came from a shelter environment.

The increase in food and water is good. How long have you had him? Sometimes cats are not hungry or thirsty when they are in a new environment.

So...definitely go to the vet! It needs to go anyway for shots and to be spayed/neutered (if it's not already). I would think about having it micro-chipped also. Many vets have a new kitten package that gives you a deal on all that stuff.

Should have included all of this stuff.

He's about 5 months old (was born in March). Came neutered and up to date on shots from the shelter (got rabies the day before I picked him up).

I've never seen a cat take to new environments like this guy... he LOVES new places and especially loves doors...


I am planning on getting him micro chipped shortly.

There is some stuff in his ears but it looks like wax as far as I can tell. The black stuff is in his nose and seems to have cleared up as of now, it's been a couple days since there was new stuff.

When my 5.5 month old was suspected of having earmites, the Vet looked for white stuff as well. Even though she didn't find any...all the head-shaking and ear scratching stopped the day after he was treated for earmites

It's always worth a visit just to make sure. When he started shaking his head and scratching his ears in front of the Vet...that clinched the diagnosis.

It's possible he also has an ear infection. Left untreated, they just get ugly.

I always advise new adopters to get their new pet vet checked ASAP after adoption, as things do get missed.