Try as we may, there are certain afflictions that our animals seem to be prone to contracting despite our best efforts.\u00a0 Ear mites are one of those maladies.\u00a0 Ear mites can affect cats and dogs and left untreated can cause considerable harm.\u00a0 Therefore, all pet owners need to be aware of the signs and symptoms of ear mite infestation and understand the necessary treatment.<\/p>\n
An ear mite is a tiny insect related to the tick.\u00a0 The feast off of the blood of your pet and burrow into the skin.\u00a0 If viewed under a microscope they look like tiny crabs.\u00a0 Once the mites have a firm hold with the tiny hooks on their legs, they are impossible to remove and must be killed.<\/p>\n
The most common area of infestation is along the outside edges of the ears.\u00a0 The ears are relatively dirty areas, especially on a dog, and the mites feast off of the dead skin and dirt found there.\u00a0 The mites can quickly move from one animal to another through contact or through contaminated bedding.\u00a0 In rare cases the mites can even infect humans, though it’s rare due to normal human hygiene.\u00a0 Once one of your pets is infested, the rest of your menagerie will soon exhibit the tell tale ear scratching behavior of the afflicted.\u00a0 A serious infestation can prevent the animal from sleeping and nearly drive them insane.<\/p>\n
This furious scratching causes its own complications.\u00a0 Often the animal will scratch until the skin is raw and bleeding.\u00a0 As the mites multiply, they move farther and farther into the ear, leading to hearing problems.\u00a0 Ears can be permanently scarred.\u00a0 These wounds then become infected and if left untreated can be life threatening.\u00a0 A good pet owner will never let the condition progress to this stage.<\/p>\n
Preventive measures as always are the best option, followed by early treatment.\u00a0 Owners should inspect their pets’ ears regularly for signs of infestation.\u00a0 Vigorous scratching or shaking of the head will probably be the first sign that ear mites are present.\u00a0 Visible indicators will look like dirty spots in the ears and there will usually be signs of bleeding.\u00a0 Ears should be cleaned inside and out, especially if the animal has large floppy ears.\u00a0 Medicated washes are available that can treat mild cases if caught early.\u00a0 More serious cases might require medications and antibiotics to treat for infection.<\/p>\n
Though difficult to prevent, ear mites are easily treated and should not cause a major problem.\u00a0 However, if you ignore your pet’s health and hygiene, ear mites can blossom into a serious health problem.\u00a0 Save yourself the annoyance and your pet the discomfort and perform routine checks every couple of weeks.\u00a0 This simple measure is all that is required to keep this parasite at bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Try as we may, there are certain afflictions that our animals seem to be prone to contracting despite our best efforts.\u00a0 Ear mites are one of those maladies.\u00a0 Ear mites can affect cats and dogs and left untreated can cause considerable harm.\u00a0 Therefore, all pet owners need to be aware of the signs and symptoms … Continue reading “Try as we may, there are certain afflictions that our animals seem to be prone to contracting despite our best efforts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,32,145,301,190],"class_list":["post-15301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cattle","tag-anti","tag-firm","tag-kill","tag-men","tag-rest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cattle.ru\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}