Fleas/Mites/Yeast?

ritz

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About a week ago I kind of noticed that Ritz was scratching more than usual, not really limited to one part of her body, and not what I would consider over grooming.

It got worse.  Yesterday afternoon I used a flea comb and out came one live ?flea and some flea dirt.  So I gave her a treatment of Frontline Plus, half the dose got where it was suppose to go, the other half perhaps where she could have licked it off. I did this around 18 hours ago.  This morning I washed the bed linen (where she sleeps) and vacuumed thoroughly. 

But she is still scratching, especially her ears, I would guess one ear, not both.  I looked in her ears with a key-chain strenghth flash light and didn't see any 'coffee grind' type of dirt.  She wasn't particularly anxious when I was doing this.  I didn't smell anything (though didn't think to take a deep sniff).  I used the comb again and maybe a flea dirt [feces] came out, I put a little water on it, didn't see any pink/blood.

She has what I would consider a fairly hairy inside of the ear, but Ritz is my first cat so I don't know what normal is.  And certainly this is the first time I've ever dealt with fleas/mites/etc.

I am leaving for vacation (Greece) on Thursday, so I don't have time to self-diagnose or play around.  But before I take her to the vets--always a traumatic experience for all concerned and I won't be around long to reassure her--what else should I look for?  I understand that Frontline Plus does not treat ear mites.  That said, could the fleas have migrated to her ears.  And, finally, how long does Frontline Plus take to take effect.

Ritz is a strictly indoor cat.  But I moved recently from a third floor condo to a ground level townhouse, so she is also exposed to much more pollen and her face is always at the window screen.  Could fleas/mites have gotten in through the screens?  Except for one brief episode of five consecutive sneezes, she shows no symptoms of allergies (no watery eyes).

Thanks.
 

orientalslave

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You found flea dirt so clearly she has been bitten by fleas.  However fleas don't live on the cat (or dog), they hop on, eat and hop off - and they can hop on you for a meal and get carried indoors and drop off into your house...  Your cat may be itching because she has flea allergy, because she has mites or possibly for other reasons.

Good that you are going to the vets to get them take a good look in her ears.  In the UK there seem to be two ways of treating ear mites.  One is with Canaural which drowns them and also helps clean the muck out, but it needs to be repeated several days in a row and then again 3 weeks later as it's not effective against the eggs, and possibly another 3 weeks later.  The other way is with a one-off drop-on - I think it's Revolution which contains Selamectin.

I think you would do well to treat the whole appartment against fleas, as there are almost certainly eggs, larvae and pupae in it - finding a flea on a cat is the tip of the iceberg.  Some UK web pages that might be useful:

http://www.fabcats.org/owners/fleas/info.html

http://www.fabcats.org/owners/ear/info.html

http://www.fabcats.org/owners/fleas/itchy_cat.html
 
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