Ear Mites And Fleas at once! GROSS! D:

[firecat]

I want to tell you a horrible tale. A tale that is gross, but with a happy ending. My male cat had been scratching his ears for a few days now, but not seeing anything amiss with his ears I thought maybe he was fine. Mind you that he is a very hairy eared cat so its hard to tell whats going on around there. This morning, however, I noticed the female scratching too. And her ears were easy to check and there was black gunk and blood! I panicked, did my google search, decided it might be ear mites. I decided to hunker down and check him again and looked in and there is brown gunk in there too.

Calling the vet they told me I could bring my cats in. But the problem being one person with two cats and no car I'd have to bring them in one at a time. (I live across the road from my vet. Convenience!)

So I chose to bring Oreo in first, since she's friendlier, and if there was a serious problem with her, (and since she had the bleeding) then there'd be a good excuse to bring him in too. (Despite my insurance, and general good income, I still am skittish about money from years of not having it before.)

I called my insurance company first, they said that I have an 80% coverage of illnesses, accidents and the medications and the like and I should be covered, they would fax in the forms. So good. I didn't have to worry about that. My deductible is $100 so at most I'd have to pay that plus 20% percent after the deductible, or whatever. I don't know math.

Well, then I brought Oreo in, and the vet took a swab and went to examine it. Then he snuck back into the room, told me to follow him, and I heard a nurse say 'oh how neat!' before I entered the room, and saw her leaving where the microscope was, and have him point me to it, and I thought, oh my god. I looked in and FREAKED OUT.

Gross. Little crawling things. Under the microscope, in the dirt in my cat's ears! GROSS!

I felt dirty and crawly all over. It was ear mites. And he told me there was no point in me bringing my other cat in, 99 percent he has the same problem.

Then on a hunch he combed my cat for fleas and found flea dirt. Auuuuuugh.

He felt so sorry for me, said I wouldn't have to bring him in either for that since they'd probably both have fleas, and so I only had to pay for one visit.

Then the most horrifically gross part of all. He offered to clean Oreo's ears to give her a bit of relief. He told me it wasn't necessary, the mites would be taken care of by the medication he was gonna give me, but I said okay, there was a fee for all this, but meh. A bit of relief for Oreo since she was scratching so hard she was bleeding.

He squirted her ears with liquid stuff which she shook all over me. Then he took about six or seven of those q tip swabs to clean out her ears between sprays, and there was so much of that black gunk I was close to tears. I swore, and apologized for swearing. And said oh my god. I couldn't believe her ears were so filthy!

He again reassured me I didn't need to have Jessie's ears cleaned out, the medicine would get rid of the fleas and mites so it would be okay. The dirt was the stuff the mites ate or something. Wax I guess? I dunno.

Point being, he gave me a prescription of Advantage (dual medicine meant for both fleas and ear mites) for both cats, and I saved a trip and some money with my other cat, since they charge appointments based on the number of cats you bring in.

I have given them both this month's dose of advantage and am feeling more assured that the $6 or something I get back from my pet insurance will be worth the $25 per cat I pay each month.

But, at least, I know, if that bill had been a lot more than $108 I'd be paying thousands out of pocket without insurance. O_O

I don't know how to feel about the ear mites and fleas though. Do I have to scrub my house now?

Put all my clothes in garbage bags or something? I thought that was only for lice!

Help! Advice?

 

[gaylemg]

It's good that you got the Advantage. I'd clean the house thoroughly and vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. Throw the bag or dump the canister away from the house. I bought some flea spray for carpets and furniture when that happened to me and I just sprayed all the furniture, washed all bedding (mine and the cats'), and mopped hard floors. It won't be long until they are gone after that. If you buy the spray, make sure it is formulated to kill eggs and larvae as well as adults. This is only for the fleas. Once the ear mites in the cats are dead, you don't have to worry about them. They don't get into the environment like the fleas do.
Oh, and I wouldn't worry about your clothes unless the cats have been all over them. You can just wash and dry like normal, but I've been told to leave clothes in the dryer for about half an hour because the heat in the dryer will kill any bugs in there.

 

[bunnelina]

If you think your experience is gross, try reading up on ringworm!

It's a million times worse: contagious to humans, the spores can survive for 2 years, and it's way more expensive and disgusting to treat (dip every cat in a lime-sulfur solution twice a week, which smells like rotten eggs and turns white fur yellow-green when it dries). You have to keep up the treatments and expensive oral meds for at least a couple of months (some people are stuck doing it for years until all their cats' cultures are negative three times in a row).

Oh, and you're supposed to meticulously vacuum, scrub, launder, and wipe down everything in your house, preferably with strong bleach solution, constantly, during the entire treatment.

We are waiting for our first culture on a kitten, and I'm estimating that if it's positive, we're out at least $4,000 for the treatments and dips at the groomer for our four cats (no way can we manage dips at home). Even with insurance on two of the cats, this will be insanely expensive. And I'm unemployed, although it looks like I'll have a full-time, unpaid job as my own 24/7 housecleaner.

Feeling better now? Flea-bombing works fast, and then you're usually DONE!

 

[gaylemg]

I forgot about flea bombs. I never use them because I would have to get so many animals out of the house before I could do it. I have 8 cats, 2 dogs, a bird, hermit crabs, 3 rats, and fish. Rather than move my whole zoo, I just treat the animals and vacuum, mop, and spray. But flea bombs are great if you just have to move a couple of animals out for awhile.

 

[Willowy]

Heh, yeah, ear mites and fleas aren't even close to being the grossest things you'll have to deal with in cat ownership!!! I can think of about a million things grosser than those.....

Advantage Multi and Revolution are miracles, IMO. SO much easier than trying to put goopy stuff in a fighting cat's ears 3 times a day. That should take care of the problem for you.

 

[strange_wings]

Originally Posted by Willowy

Advantage Multi and Revolution are miracles, IMO. SO much easier than trying to put goopy stuff in a fighting cat's ears 3 times a day. That should take care of the problem for you.

How does a 30 day treatment work for something that has a 21 day egg to adult cycle? I've never been able to figure this out, but suspect that's why Revolution treatments were useless against completely getting rid of earmites in the cats I've had to treat - cats treated with revolution always ended up needing further treatment.

You do not have to put anything in a cat's ears daily. Acarexx (ivermectin) is done in two treatments 21 days apart to treat against the earmite life cycle.

 

[ink]

We have always used olive oil to treat ear mites. We would put it in their ears once a week for three weeks. It something I learned from raising rabbits. When rabbits get ear mites their ears can get really bad really quick and olive oil works quite well and isn't full of chemicals.

 

[dandi]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

You do not have to put anything in a cat's ears daily. Acarexx (ivermectin) is done in two treatments 21 days apart to treat against the earmite life cycle.

Oh God! I've gotta do this TWICE? I just spent $120 for a round of this stuff! $20 per cat x 6 cats. My vet never said I was gonna have to do it again. Excuse me while I go into a corner and sob...

 

[strange_wings]

Treating fleas can take up to 3 months to break their cycle - if you can get rid of them in your home, too. They really take advantage of us by charging what they do.

Talk to your vet, their ears can be checked in 21 days to see if any missed eggs have hatched. If none have - good!


Parasites are one of the most annoying things about having pets. I can handle all sorts of crazy cat related things, but I think this frustrates everyone.

 

[bunnelina]

I was at the vet again tonight (it's a twice-weekly thing these days) and the vet tech tried to cheer me up by telling me about scabies, which is even more disgusting than ringworm. It actually did cheer me up a bit!

In Europe, there are ringworm foggers that work like flea bombs but they aren't approved here. i'd like to smuggle some in!

 

[sarahp]

I had a litter of SIX kittens that I rescued that all had ear mites and fleas as well as diarrhea - urghh! The vet showed me the ear mites under the scope too - very gross!

The treatment you got is excellent though, and will be very effective. You can get regular Advantage, and apply that to your cats on a regular basis - I do every 4 weeks in summer, 6-8 weeks in cooler months. That will keep the fleas at bay.

I would vacuum thorougly, and wash any bedding the cats lie in regularly, but Advantage is excellent at breaking the flea cycle.

 

[yosemite]

Try to get some diatomaceous earth (like a fine powder) to sprinkle into your carpeting/furniture and work it down into the fibres. This will kill any living fleas and any future fleas. Fleas can live in your carpeting for up to a year so you do need to be proactive. Buying flea sprays over-the-counter will not solve your problem and they are dangerous to your animals. DE is 100% safe (food/human grade only) for you and your animals.

Unless you have a really bad infestation I would also not recommend bombing - the DE will do as much and be less toxic. Often if they have fleas, they will also have tapeworm which will need to be treated as well.

 

[Willowy]

Originally Posted by strange_wings

You do not have to put anything in a cat's ears daily. Acarexx (ivermectin) is done in two treatments 21 days apart to treat against the earmite life cycle.

All I ever used in the past was OTC pyrethrin ear mite treatment (on a vet's recommendation). It does say to put it in their ears daily, sometimes multiple times. Only recently did a vet recommend ivermectin to me.....which is nice because it's cheap and potent enough to really do some good. But I do prefer using Revolution. It's always worked for me the first time. I suppose in a bad infestation it might need a second application.

 

[Are93]

I have two cats suffering from fleas, ear mites and worms, is it safe to treat all 3 at once?