Ear mites in cats are a problem throughout the world. They occur in all climates and both wet and dry conditions. The reason being is that the inner ear maintains a perfect environment for the ear mites in terms of moisture, cellular debris, and inaccessibility to the cat trying to scratch them out. When I was a boy, my mother use to sit and dig the crusty brown debris from our cats' ears thinking that would solve the ear mite problems. It probably got most of them, but a few certainly remained and were able enough to produce more. The treatments forty years ago were not as effective either and re-infestation commonly occurred, to the frustration of any cat owner.Ear mites can be detected empirically by just looking in your cat's ears and seeing a brown crusting matter building up in them. Rabbits get an even more dramatic accumulation of crust and their ear mite debris comes out in large chunks: www.ocw.tufts.edu/data/5/215910/49239_medium.jpg Treatment of the ear mites is now simpler than ever. A one time filling of the ears with a product containing ivermectin and the ear mites all die off and go away. You don't even clean the ears prior to application of the medication, as the debris holds the medication in the ears longer. The ears self-clean in time by lateral outward migration of the replicating cells within the ears. Re-infestation is possible, but the ivermectin stays in the cat's system long enough to kill off any early migrants that may be planning a comeback. See: www.petville.com/pet_community/images/cat_ear_mite.jpg
Also see a closeup of an ear mite www.televets.com/upload/images/articles/0vr181-6-47.jpg
Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/
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