Does this sound like ear mites?

[heliocentric]

Our dog regularly has one ear that is dirty. The skin itself is generally OK (not pink or red), but there is a lot of dark brown dirt in & around the ear. The other ear is totally fine. (The dirty ear has more "nooks and crannies" than the other, so we first thought it was related to that.)

I clean it every so often with a damp q-tip. I just clean the outside and folds, I never go into the canal, but I can see there's more in there. The last week it seems dirtier than usual.

She does rub her ear and has started rubbing her head on the sofa and carpet, so I assume it's itchy or bothering her. I"ll call the vet tomorrow (he's already gone for today). In the meantime, is there anything we can do? Any way to tell if it's mites, dirt or something else?

If it is mites, are they hard to treat? Do I have to worry about our cat (she has no symptoms)?

TIA

[kellbell191]

Its easy to treat. Ear drops for 2 weeks, one week break, ear drops for another week. She could also be getting fungal infections in there. The vet can run a sample to be sure.

[nomad100]

This sounds like what Willow had, though we had it diagnosed as a yeast infection.

Like the PP said, we got drops to put in once a day for 2 weeks.

She her ear is all better and no longer smells funky.

[niemand88f]

Jul 18, 2012 14:40:23 GMT -5 heliocentric said:

If it is mites, are they hard to treat? Do I have to worry about our cat (she has no symptoms)?

If it is mites, they can spread between pets. I would ask your vet if you should just monitor your cat for symptoms or if they want to go ahead and treat her.

But it does sound more like a yeast or other infection since mites would probably be affecting both ears. Either way it is usually pretty straightforward to treat- one of my cats had mites and just needed drops for a couple weeks, the other had a yeast infection and we had to try a couple different medications before we hit on one that finally cleared it up.