ear mites and diatomaceous earth (DE)

[cat7bird]

@Percy Boy: The DE worked really well for us, too. Glad it's working for Percy! I thought it was weird that my indoor kittens turned out to have ear mites after 7 months w/o symptoms -- 6 years is something else entirely. Interesting to learn that they can travel inside on us, like fleas, which seems pretty weird and remote. 

@sidneykitty: Do you have experience with apple cider vinegar killing off ear mites? It's my understanding that ACV does not effectively treat ear mites, despite claims to the contrary.  I do use diluted ACV to clean my cats' ears, however.

 

[sidneykitty]

You know, I don't know from personal experience. When my cat had ear mites a while back, a friend advised me to try it but I didn't have any on hand so I used olive oil instead because I always have that. I did a bit of reading after I was advised to use apple cider vinegar and as far as I'd found it works, but I can't say from my experience if it does or not.

Out of curiosity, I looked it up and apparently ear mites, like fleas, can also "tag along" inside the house on clothing or whatever else you bring in. Its probably not too common, though. Where I live the climate is fairly temperate and mild all year, so we have the possibility of fleas even during winter if it doesn't get cold enough so its nearly a year-round thing to be preventing or on the look-out for! How interesting.

 

[cat7bird]

Hmmm... I'm very curious about whether ACV would work. Did the oil thing work for you guys? It was such a disaster for both of my cats :/

 

[percy boy]

Percy is tossing his head, but definitely better than yesterday. The melted coconut oil I was using for the mites, got on the cat's fur around his ear and seem to cause heavy shedding - irritating the skin. Another reason I started looking for alternatives. Maybe it's too moist for the skin - poor guy. So am gently cleaning the oil up with ACV/water combo- hopefully I can keep him from scratching so he won't have a bald spot. Extra fish oil for Percy! [emoji]128566[/emoji]

THANKS

 

[red top rescue]

Cats hate anything wet in their ears.  Have you ever gotten water in your ears?  Remember how it crackles and makes funny sounds?  So you jump up and down on one leg, tilting your head to the side and banging your head with your hand until it released.  Aaaah, relief.  Cats' hearing is every so much more sensitive than ours!  They can't jump up and down and bang their ears, they just have to listen to the super loud roaring and crackling in their ears.  Don't do it.  We already have something that works.  It irritates their ears a little by irritating the mites, otherwise not at all.  Sometimes our old fashioned methods work better than any of the new ones.

 

[percy boy]

Sorry - I'm cleaning oil (w/ACV) from the fur outside of the ear:-). Still have great hopes for the DE! Tomorrow is the 3rd day then we'll wait the week and begin again. THANKS so much!

 

[mr hobbs]

We had a problem with one of our cats and tried solving it using coconut oil: big mistake. She became very sick and we ended up having to take her to the vets. They explained that if a cat already has any kind of skin infection, putting coconut oil on it actually feeds the parasites/mites. When we put it on her they reproduced like mad and made her very sick. In future I shall not use coconut oil again.

 

[cat7bird]

Yup, that was definitely our experience too. Problem went from bad to worse with the oil treatment. My kitties ear mites never returned after a few months of DE. Now I give it as a preventative once in a blue moon, but even this is probably unnecessary for us.

 

[javi3]

I know this post is a couple years old, but I can't get any advice from someone who's had firsthand experience re DE and ear mites.
Could you who have tried it tell me what you think of it 2 years later? Did it work as well as anything from the vet? Did you notice any adverse effects later from putting it directly into the ears? Should I mix with a tad of water and let it sink down into the canal, or just put in/around ear flap? Any tips would be helpful.
Thanks!

 

[cat7bird]

Hey -- I just responded to your PM, but wanted to also address the questions in your post. The DE worked for us, with no negative effects. However in my case, it's totally possible that I had killed off the mites before I started the DE (though how DE acts as a pesticide is known and documented, so I wouldn't worry about it not being effective). I had done Tresaderm, and some rounds of oil prior to DE, and while that had disastrous effects on their secondary infections, and surrounding skin, the oil still could have drowned the mites. The vet was recommending at least 2 months of revolution to address any late hatchers, and I wanted to prevent a resurgence in a safer way, and that research is how I came across using DE.

I would NOT mix DE with water. You can apply it around the ear (even a not very alternative-friendly vet recommended dusting DE all over my cats' fur to kill fleas -- which they didn't actually have but that's another story). I put it directly into the ear canal, dry, using these tiny measuring spoons I happen to use for their supplements. After sort of dumping it in, I would shake the ear to move it down, and massage. red top rescue has good posts (and advice in general) on this matter, and is linked earlier in this thread.

 

[javi3]

Really great and concise advice Thank you so much! .

 

[purrpurr]

I totally forgot I made an account for this site years ago when I got my first cat, and just wanted to say thank you so much for this thread!
My new kitten got ear mites so I was looking for other preventatives besides Revolution to stop my older cat from getting it, too. I researched and saw the whole thing about olive oil, but was iffy about using it in my cat's ears.
This thread on DE was so helpful, especially knowing that putting a little directly into the ear won't harm the kitties.

 

[The_Cats_Meow]

Hi all.

Has anyone used DE to kill ear mites? Or does anyone have any knowledge or thoughts about the safety and/or efficacy of putting DE inside of a cat's (or, well, 9-month old kitten's) ears? It just came up in a search and while I'm aware of many uses for DE, I had not come across it being used in this way before (and I've done no shortage of research on the subject of killing ear mites). I've personally experienced the effects of inhaling DE and I know how unpleasant / dangerous this is. Any safety concerns with putting it in their ears versus on their coats or in their food? Thanks.

I was wondering if we mic DE with water and use as drops it would coat the ear if the cat and dry thus killing the ear mites. Do you think that would work?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Two posters above stated to not put anything WET in their ears, so I would go with the dry DE instead. Is there any reason why you don't want to go that route?

 

[Rwoolverton]

Hey -- I just responded to your PM, but wanted to also address the questions in your post. The DE worked for us, with no negative effects. However in my case, it's totally possible that I had killed off the mites before I started the DE (though how DE acts as a pesticide is known and documented, so I wouldn't worry about it not being effective). I had done Tresaderm, and some rounds of oil prior to DE, and while that had disastrous effects on their secondary infections, and surrounding skin, the oil still could have drowned the mites. The vet was recommending at least 2 months of revolution to address any late hatchers, and I wanted to prevent a resurgence in a safer way, and that research is how I came across using DE.

I would NOT mix DE with water. You can apply it around the ear (even a not very alternative-friendly vet recommended dusting DE all over my cats' fur to kill fleas -- which they didn't actually have but that's another story). I put it directly into the ear canal, dry, using these tiny measuring spoons I happen to use for their supplements. After sort of dumping it in, I would shake the ear to move it down, and massage. red top rescue has good posts (and advice in general) on this matter, and is linked earlier in this thread.

I found this little plastic bottle which I use to gently blow the DE into my cat's ear.

Hi all.

Has anyone used DE to kill ear mites? Or does anyone have any knowledge or thoughts about the safety and/or efficacy of putting DE inside of a cat's (or, well, 9-month old kitten's) ears? It just came up in a search and while I'm aware of many uses for DE, I had not come across it being used in this way before (and I've done no shortage of research on the subject of killing ear mites). I've personally experienced the effects of inhaling DE and I know how unpleasant / dangerous this is. Any safety concerns with putting it in their ears versus on their coats or in their food? Thanks.

I found this little plastic squeeze bottle to gently blow the DE into my cats ear

 

[cdpoel]

I found this little plastic bottle which I use to gently blow the DE into my cat's ear.

I found this little plastic squeeze bottle to gently blow the DE into my cats ear

Hi! Where did you get that plastic bottle, please?