More black stuff in a cat that has ear mites?

Question

Hi everyone,
My cat has had ear mites since about a year ago when we brought him home from the shelter. We took him to the vet and she diagnosed the ear mite problem and put him on Revolution. But that medication hasn't worked. She told us to put it in his ear once a month. I thought I read in other places that it was once every two or three weeks or something. I sort of do not trust vets anymore, because of an incident my fiance had.

So we bought some ear mite medication at the pet store called Bio-Groom. We decided to use up the bottle first before we bite the bullet and take him to another vet. Haven't finished the bottle yet, and there appears to be more black stuff in his ears.

Does anyone know what this means? Or any other advice for ear mites? We clean out his ears (if there's gunk in them) before treating them, with mineral oil and cotton swabs.

Thanks!
Sandy

Answer 1

Try another vet for a second/better? opinion. Also go to [e-mail] for more{free} advice. Good Luck from Brian&Stimpy

Answer 2

I've never heard of of putting Revolution in an animal's ears, it usually goes on the back of the neck between the shoulders. Keeping the ears clean and treating them with an over the counter medicine should be doing the trick if they are ear mites. There are many other types of ear infections that animals get that leave black gunk in their ears. If this has been going on for a year, I think you have to see a vet, try getting a referral from the shelter you got your cat at, or from friends (since you're not too happy with your current vet). The vet may want to culture the black gunk from your cat's ears, this will cost extra, but it will get you on the right track as to what you are treating and help get rid of it. If the problem continues unchecked your cat could lose hearing in the affected ears and have balance problems.
Good luck with your cat.

Answer 3

Various commercial ear preparations are available to kill the mites. These products contain an insecticide, usually pyrethrin. Ear products without an insecticide will not kill the mites. Milbemycin (Interceptor) and Acarexx (a form of ivermectin) have recently been approved for the treatment of ear mites in cats. Fipronil (Frontline), and selamectin (Revolution) have also been used by some veterinarians. Depending upon the medication used, the ears may need to be treated two to four weeks until all mites are killed. As previously mentioned, many ear mites live all over the body, including the feet and tail. These areas should also be treated. Most products designed for fleas and ticks such as sprays, dips, and shampoos, which contain one of the above ingredients will be effective. Be sure to use products approved for use on cats, and to treat the tail. This is because while sleeping, the tail is curled around the kitten's body where it lies in close contact with the ear. Because mites are very easily transferred between pets, it is best if all pets in the household receive simultaneous treatment. Most types of mites do not survive long off the pets, so the treatment of the house and yard is usually not necessary.

sounds like your cat may need a more aggressive treatment...

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
More black stuff in a cat that has ear mites?
Hi everyone,
My cat has had ear mites since about a year ago when we brought him home from the shelter. We took him to the vet and she diagnosed the ear mite problem and put him on Revolution. But that medication hasn't worked. She told us to put it in his ear once a month. I thought I read in...

Answer 5

Poor kitty!

That black gunk is probably blood or mite feces. And the first vet should have indeed put your baby on ear mite MEDICINE, not on flea and tick repellant. Though the Revolution might have saved you trouble of another sort.

Now, when my husband and I brought our little kitties home, they also had ear mites. And our vet gave us ear drops and told us to clean their ears every day until the mites and drops were gone. They haven't had ear mite trouble since then.

Good luck finding a good vet: A year is far too long to have ear mites.

Answer 6

The mineral oil is probably not a good idea. Just a damp q-tip will do. If your cat is young, you might just be seeing the gunk that is natural for that age. Up until about a year or so of age, young cats just have tons of wax and junk coming out of them.

Does your cat scratch or groom the ears frequently? If not, it's probably not mites.

More importantly, find a vet you can trust and visit him/her yearly with your cat. (Good vets are out there, just shop around. Ask friends.) Kitty can't tell you when he is feeling sick, so YOU need to be on top of things.

Answer 7

Get a different Vet.
One of our cats had what we thought were ear mites.
Our Vet was out of town so we took the cat to a different Vet.
That one told us that I cat DID have ear mites and gave us medication, but the "Mites" never cleared up.

So when our regular Vet came back we took our cat to him...the cat DID NOT have ear mites at all she had an over abudance of yeast in her ears.
He gave us different drops and the problem was solved within just a few days and has never returned.

So you might want to have a different Vet check the cat.

Answer 8

My cat was just at the vet yesterday and had ear mites. I don't know if there is another kind of Revolution but the one he used was a spot on treatment you put on the back of the neck like Frontline. Are you sure you are using it the right way??

Answer 9

My cat had the same problem. No matter what our shelter vets did, it would either not go away, or if it did, it would quickly come back. After I adopted him (I knew his foster mom), I took him to MY vet. Turned out that he had a bacterial infection in his ears. According to my vet, it looks exactly like earmites (the black goop) but under a microscope you can see the difference. One round of meds (from the vet) and it has been gone for over a year.

Answer 10

He could have a secondary yeast infection in the ear which would also produce large amounts of black "gunk". Call the shelter where you got him and ask if they'll have their vet take a peek at him. I understand your reluctance, but the shelter should stand behind their baby and let you get a second opinion from someone who provides their health care services.

Answer 11

check out this web site. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_ear_mites.html

It will give you information on ear mites.

I would suggest you stick with what the vet gave you. Give it a week and if you see no improvement call them back. Ask them if there may be some other type of infection that would cause this.

The stuff in the pet stores is not as good and usually just covers up the problem for a while.