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ar mites are microscopic bugs that live in and
around your pet’s ears. They live on the secretions
and dead skin cells in the ear
canal. The mites lay their eggs on the pet, which go
on to hatch and continue the infestation. Ear mites
are highly contagious between dogs and cats and some pocket pets.
They generally spread from one pet to another through close
contact and shared sleeping areas. As a rule, they
don’t tend to bother humans.
How Do I know if
my pet has Ear Mites?
In the early stages of infestation, your pet may
not show any signs of the mites. As their numbers
grow and they do more damage to the lining of the ear, the pets tend to
scratch their ears and shake their heads. The
lining of the ear responds to the presence of the mites by increasing
their wax production. This excess wax, combined with the excretions of
the mites tends to look dark brown to black. Sometimes you can see this
exudates in your pet’s ear. Keep in mind that the
mere presence of a discharge in the ear does not mean that your pet has
ear mites (it could be an infection, a foreign body reaction or even a
tumor causing the discharge)
How do we
diagnose ear mites?
During the physical exam, the doctor will look in
the ears of your pet with a hand held otoscope or a video-otoscope to
look for the mites. If they are there in large
numbers, we might be able to see them moving around in the ear.
If there are only a few of them, we might need to examine the
debris in the ear under the microscope to make the diagnosis.
If we see any mites, or even their eggs on the slide, we know
the pet is infected.
How do we treat
ear mites?
In order to treat ear mites, first we have to clean
out the debris in the ear canal. Depending on the
amount of debris (and sometimes it can fill the entire ear) and the
personality of the cat, this procedure may require sedation or
anesthesia. We clean the ear canal using irrigation
solutions and de-waxing agents. Once we have cleaned
out the ears, we can instill medication into the ear that will continue
to kill the mites and sooth the painful ears.
Because mites can also live around the head, we typically use an
injectable drug called Ivermectin to kill the mites as well.
Many pets will scratch their ears to the point of bleeding and we
may choose to administer cortisone by injection and/or pills to help
reduce the itchiness.
At home, we have you clean out the ears 2-3 times
per weeks with an irrigating solution such as Epi-Otic or
Dermapet. This keeps the wax and debris out of
the canal so that the medication can do its job. In
addition, you will instill medicated drops (typically Tresaderm)
into the ears twice daily for 10 – 14 days. If there
are other pets in the house, they all need to be treated or they may
pass the mites back to your pet. In order to reduce
contamination from mites in the environment, it is advisable to wash all
bedding in hot water.
What is the
prognosis for this problem?
If treated properly, most mite infestations will be
cleared up in a couple of weeks. Treatment failures
generally occur from people not treating other pets in the house,
inconsistent application of the drugs, or stopping treatment before the
full 10 days are up.
If you have any questions regarding this, or any
other problems concerning your pet’s health care, please feel free to
contact us.
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