Hi, I'm new here, just joined this morning.
So.. I'm kind of young/sort of a newb. I'm 21 years old and just adopted my first cat about 2 months ago. His name is dan and he is 3 years old and i love to spoil him. I am a bit concerned about him though and since I dont have a lot of experience i just want to make sure i'm doing whats best for him.
About a month after i bought him he started scratching behind his left ear. Since he is an indoor cat and there were no other animals present i thought i could rule out fleas. lo and behold, about a week after the scratching began and he had a couple nice scabs going, i found a flea crawling on his noise. I immediately went and bought one of those treatments you squeeze on the back of their necks. I didnt see any more fleas after that and the scratching stopped for a while. However, a couple days ago he has started back up again and scratched himself early this morning to the point where he bled a little. I didnt know what else to do so i wiped it clean with a damp rag and applied some neosporin.
ive read that ear mites may exist outside the ear canal and i thought he might be scratching at those, but i've checked in his ears and i dont really see anything out of the ordinary (no black crusty spots or gunk).
is there anything else i can do for him? is it possible he has either ear mites or fleas and i just cant detect them? Does some sort of cream or ointment exist to soothe irritated skin on cats? I can keep an eye on him and stop him from scratching while i'm around, but i am about to leave for work and obviously wont have any control over what he does to himself while i'm gone.
thanks for any advice you've got!
So.. I'm kind of young/sort of a newb. I'm 21 years old and just adopted my first cat about 2 months ago. His name is dan and he is 3 years old and i love to spoil him. I am a bit concerned about him though and since I dont have a lot of experience i just want to make sure i'm doing whats best for him.
About a month after i bought him he started scratching behind his left ear. Since he is an indoor cat and there were no other animals present i thought i could rule out fleas. lo and behold, about a week after the scratching began and he had a couple nice scabs going, i found a flea crawling on his noise. I immediately went and bought one of those treatments you squeeze on the back of their necks. I didnt see any more fleas after that and the scratching stopped for a while. However, a couple days ago he has started back up again and scratched himself early this morning to the point where he bled a little. I didnt know what else to do so i wiped it clean with a damp rag and applied some neosporin.
ive read that ear mites may exist outside the ear canal and i thought he might be scratching at those, but i've checked in his ears and i dont really see anything out of the ordinary (no black crusty spots or gunk).
is there anything else i can do for him? is it possible he has either ear mites or fleas and i just cant detect them? Does some sort of cream or ointment exist to soothe irritated skin on cats? I can keep an eye on him and stop him from scratching while i'm around, but i am about to leave for work and obviously wont have any control over what he does to himself while i'm gone.
thanks for any advice you've got!