Sometimes the owners of a cat begin to notice that she often shakes her ears and scratches them. In this case, the animal must be carefully examined. The fact is that this may be a sign of a disease such as ear mites. In a cat, the treatment of this infection is a process that is not particularly difficult, but not in advanced cases.
Main signs of otodectosis
When examining an animal scratching its ears, dark small balls will most likely be noticed, sometimes even completely clogging the ear canal. Their presence is one of the main signs of the presence of a special type of parasite - a tick that feeds on exfoliated cells of the epidermis. This small insect (approximately 0.7 mm long) cleans off dead cells and damages living ones, which leads to the formation of scabs and dark plaque. In very serious cases, damage to the eardrum can occur, causing ear mites in a cat, which are easy to treat at an early stage, to penetrate from the outer ear intomiddle, and then to the inner.
Sometimes it happens that the lining of the brain is affected. Correcting the situation in this case will be much more difficult. Usually the animal at this stage of otodectosis simply dies. Therefore, as soon as any signs of infection are noticed, the cat should be taken to the veterinarian or at least treated yourself.
What drugs can help?
As already mentioned, the disease is quite dangerous - ear mites in a cat. Treatment is recommended to start as soon as the problem is detected. In order to save the animal from this unpleasant misfortune, you need to take the following measures:
- Wipe the ears with hydrogen peroxide and rinse them, carefully removing dark plaque and balls.
- Drip special drops into the outer ear. For this, a variety of drugs can be used. This can be a medicine "Acaricide" heated to 35 degrees (0.2 - 0.3 ml in each ear), "Bars" or "Amitrazin" (3 drops daily for a week). You can apply the tool "Stronghold" (5 drops). It is non-toxic, and it just does a great job of dealing with such a scourge as ear mites in cats. Drops "Stronghold", among other things, will protect the animal from infection over the next month. They can also be used for kittens. Medicines "Stronghold" and "Acaricide" are used once. Only in very serious cases sometimes it is necessaryrepeat processing.
- Support the animal's immune system. This will help a balanced diet. In addition, the cat must be given vitamins (for example, "Gamavit").
Applying this whole set of measures, you can get rid of such a nuisance as ear mites in a cat. Treatment will not be effective if the room is not disinfected. Be sure to wash the floors, rewash all the bedspreads and, of course, disinfect the cat litter.
Preventive measures
In order to avoid such a disease as an ear mite in cats (photos of this parasite, as well as an infected animal are presented in the article), you should use, for example, the Stronghold preparation once a month. Prevention of otodectosis will be greatly facilitated by maintaining cleanliness in the room. In addition, be sure to regularly treat the auricles of the animal with special lotions. It is also worth periodically taking the cat to the veterinarian or examining it yourself.
