Answer: For the majority of cats is signifies that one are usually both ears are infected with ear mites, a condition referred to popularly as ‘ear mange’ or sometimes ‘canker’.
The mites are so small that with the eye alone they can hardly be distinguished inside the ear canal. However, with a magnifying glass they can be seen as small, whitish speck moving slowly over the lining of the canal. Veterinarians usually use a combined magnifying glass and light source, an auriscope or cotoscope to view the ear. When some of the wax from the ear is placed under a microscope the mites can be easily identified.
Ear mites do not penetrate the skin but live and breed on the surface, grazing on the dead skin cells and possibly sucking lymph from the skin vessels.
Although many cats can have small number of ear mites and show no obvious signs of discomfort, in some cats their activity produces considerable inflammation and irritation of the outer ear (otitis externa). This causes the cat to shake, rub and scratch its ears almost constantly. The cat often inflicts dreadful damage upon itself with its claws by ripping at the ear flaps and the skin of the head behind them, often causing wounds and bleeding. This continuous rubbing can often cause all the hair to be removed from the skin behind the ear and from between the ear and the eye. Also a blood blister (hematoma) may be formed in the ear flap which should be drained surgically, otherwise the flap will distort into a ‘cauliflower ear’ in healing.
In response to the irritation in the ear canal, large amount of drink brown wax is formed which dries into crusts in the ear.
In most cases the ear mites are easily eliminated by cleaning the ears and applying a parasiticidal preparation, usually as ear drops, for a few days. Both ears should treated and, because the mites are readily transmitted between animals, all the dogs and the cats in the household should be treated simultaneously, whether they are showing signs yet or not. Mites can also travel to other pats of the body and so it is good idea to treat the whole body with a parasiticidal spray or powder.
Much less common is bacterial infection in the ear, or objects such as grass seeds or grit in the canal. These can also cause the cat is best examined by your veterinary surgeon who can supply the appropriate medication.
