Olive oil ear mite treatment seems to be making them worse!

[liza1903]

Hi all, I think my 11 year old kitty has ear mites, at least from the looks of it. I tried to take her to the vet for a diagnosis, but she freaked out so much the vet could not even come near her. Long story short, the vet and I tried a plethora of different options to get her diagnosed and nothing has worked. The vet wasn't able to diagnose her but did suggest to use olive oil as a home treatment for several weeks. I started 2 days ago, and now it seems as though the problem is getting worse. It's a little early to tell whether the ear mites and the debris from them have decreased, but her ears are very red as she keeps scratching at them. I don't know whether this means it's working (one of my cat owner friends said this is a good sign) or if she is allergic to olive oil and that is causing the redness. Has anyone had the same experience with olive oil? Does it get better? Or does this mean something is wrong?

 

[momto3cats]

I had a kitten with a bad ear mite infestation, and I tried the olive oil treatment and had the same experience you are now. I don't know whether it would have eventually worked. I gave up on that and got a medication from the vet instead, which worked right away. 

Can you get Revolution from your vet? It treats ear mites as well as fleas. It's a commonly used flea treatment, so they shouldn't need a definite diagnosis of ear mites to sell it to you.

 

[nansiludie]

Okay, I've used olive oil to clean ears and to hold a cat over until I was able to see the vet, which was several days away but never has it cured it. I've used this before which great success in both dogs and cats, http://www.vetrxdirect.com/product/...m_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=productads

I did only use two drops per ear as it is strong stuff. I do not like to use Revolution as it is absorbed into the bloodstream and if your cat was to have, a rare, but still could happen, reaction to it, it would be harder to reverse if they could.

The redness is from the ear mites irritating the ear, are you wiping out the nasty crumbs in there? It should resemble coffee grounds and usually the ear has little sores inside.

Another thing, after you treat her, you'll need to wash her beds. And also apply a flea treatment like Advantage as it will kill any mites wandering around in her fur. You'll also need to treat any other pets in the home too.

 

[my buddies]

My cats were scratching their ears and shaking their heads so I took them to the vet.  The vet said they didn't have mites or fleas (Yay!) but I gave them each a dose of Revolution.  The vet said it's good to use it on cats at least once/year because it will get rid of critters and deworm them, too.  Dr. Shelton at animaleo.info recommended Revolution.  It seems to have worked because they are scratching their ears anymore.  Not all vets carry Revolution.