Scooter and the Epic Fight Against Ear Mites
A review of various treatments, including one that actually works
Scooter has been battling ear mites since I got him. He often holds his ears at a weird angle and shakes his head furiously, making an almost cartoonish sound every time he does it. It’s a little like the noise cartoon characters make when they’re getting their legs ready to run.
The medicine the vet gave him did nothing. It was Advantage Multi, which is supposed to take care of a host of problems. Maybe it protected him against fleas and ticks, but it did nothing for his ears.
Next I tried Ivermectin. It, too, did nothing.
I bought natural ear wash crap from Petco. From the smell of it, the main ingredient seems to be vinegar. I can’t even tell you how much Scooter hated it. I’m guessing it probably burned, as vinegar tends to do (I got a drop of vinegar in my eye yesterday during a fight with my air conditioner. I realize you probably have so many questions about how this happened and what the heck I was doing, but that’s a story for another day. Sorry. My point is that vinegar isn’t a very soothing substance).
I tried olive oil. The olive oil also didn’t help. And it was super messy. It made Scooter’s hair really greasy, not just around the ears — the grease spread to his entire head and neck, making him look like a freshly hatched chick. It was not a good look for him.
Recently, I bought some ear miticide from Tractor Supply. The instructions said to use 5 drops twice a day until the ear mites were gone. The medicine was thick, which I guess made it stick to the ear canal better? I used it for probably five days — it seemed to reduce the amount of ear mite goo in Scooter’s ears, but it didn’t get rid of it completely. And it also seemed to be a really caustic substance. One ear in particular got really raw looking. I discontinued using the ear miticide and went back to the internet to find a home remedy.
In the midst of all this, Scooter decided that he actually does love me. Weird, right? I was afraid that this battle — which involved me wrapping Scooter in a towel and messing with his ears in a way that made him yowl as if he were being murdered — would make him hate me. He was already standoffish, and I feared I was making it worse.
Instead, one night I awoke to find him cuddled up against me. His ears were itchy and raw from the ear miticide — this was right before I discontinued its use. The next morning, he sat on my lap and looked up at me lovingly. Apparently, I am a source of comfort when he doesn’t feel well.
The magic solution for ear mites turned out to be mineral oil. I would describe it as very effective and very, very messy. It involves holding your cats’ ears closed for 5 minutes so they don’t shake all the oil out of their ears. As you can imagine, cats don’t enjoy this. (Their humans also don’t enjoy it, in case you wondered). Also, I was concerned that Sweet Zombie (Scooter’s only friend among my other cats) would lick the oil off of Scooter — mineral oil is a laxative, which is just about the last thing Sweet Zombie needs. As far as I know, this didn’t happen. At least, if Sweet Zombie groomed Scooter at all, he did it when I wasn’t watching (and he did a terrible job of it because Scooter still looks really greasy).
I did the mineral oil treatment twice. One of Scooter’s ears is 100% better; the other ear is about 85% better (these are not scientific measurements — just guesstimates). I’ll treat the other ear one more time, and, I hope, that’ll be the end of this epic war against ear mites.
