D'Elle Posted April 16, 2015 Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 What's the best kind of earmite medicine? there is a bewildering array online. Both my border collies seem to have gotten earmites and rather than paying the vet and the vet's prices for the medication I would rather just get it myself if I knew which kind was effective for a good price. Any advice? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz P Posted April 16, 2015 Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 You sure it's ear mites? They are quite rare in dogs. I never see them except in pups coming out of mills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Elle Posted April 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 really? Well, I assumed that is what it is. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't know what else it would be. They have not come into contact with other dogs, but they are outside a lot. The insides of their ears are very dirty, a little greasy, and they have hard little bumps on their ears as well. Kit's are worse than Jester's. I cleaned their ears (not the insides, but the ears themselves) with vitamin E oil last night and got off a whole lot of what looked like black sand, which I have seen before in dogs with ear mites. today I washed their ears with soap and carefully cleaned out the insides with kleenex on my fingertip. They're still pretty dirty but I don't want to do too much at once. If that doesn't sound like ear mites, anyone have any other ideas? Of course, I can take them to the vet. Just trying to avoid that unless necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz P Posted April 16, 2015 Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 Could it be ear mites? Yes, but 99% of the time it's an infection with yeast, bacteria or both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted April 16, 2015 Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 If you have good eyes, they are visible to the naked eye. I've only seen earmites on about 3 dogs, all in bad shape, poor immune system, but we have earmites in thousands of cats, so not uncommon here. We massage a few drops of Ivomec into the ears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz P Posted April 16, 2015 Report Share Posted April 16, 2015 Different type of mite in dogs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ttiffany20191 Posted April 17, 2015 Report Share Posted April 17, 2015 D'Elle, casey has the exact same symptoms right now in her left ear. Cleaning it out everyday and getting large amounts of brown waxy discharge. Also has a hard lump like area on the ear. I too thought it was mites. I hope your pup gets to feeling better and you can find the cause. Xx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maralynn Posted April 17, 2015 Report Share Posted April 17, 2015 I had really good success using Zymox for a barn cat with ear gunk. Not sure how expensive your vet is but often it would be cheaper for me to get a diagnosis and then specifically treat that than try a couple different OTC remedies to see what works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted April 17, 2015 Report Share Posted April 17, 2015 I have had one or more (I'm a slow learner) experiences like Mara mentions - trying OTC preparations only to find I was either trying to take care of the wrong thing or that the OTC preparation was not effective like a prescription from the vet would have been. Since there are multiple things that could be causing ear troubles, I think a vet visit might be very worthwhile, although I do understand it when funds are tight and you are hoping to take care of something less expensively and maybe more conveniently. Best wishes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'Elle Posted April 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2015 Thanks for the replies. I seem to have the issue under control, although I still don't know what the heck it was. I massaged vitamin E oil into their ears a couple of days in a row and cleaned them up that way, then washed their ears with soap and water on a washcloth. A lot of little clumps of hair came off, so much that I feared their ears would be bald but once the fur dried you can't even tell they lost any hair. The little hard bumps have almost all vanished. The whole thing is mysterious to me. My GF tells me that her basenjis get "winter ear" each spring - basically that the outer rims of their ears get dry and crusty from being outside, although they are only outside a couple hours a day at most. Even though we live in a warm climate, their ears are very thin and the cold affects them this way. I never saw it in my border collies before, though, so I don't know if that is what it was. I am putting a little bit of diluted melaluca oil on their ears just in case it was something bacterial, to keep it from returning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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