# Is This Ear Mites, Chiggers, Ringworm???



## MimiMorgan (Aug 14, 2009)

A couple of weeks ago, my son and I noticed some small, hard white bumps on the tips of his kitty's ears. We were worried about fleas and such, so we immediately went out and bought her a flea collar. Still, the bumps got worse and now have developed a sort of scabby center and have progressed to the back of the ear, and now my other kitty is developing the same bumps.

Thinking it might be ringworm (due to it seeming to have passed to another cat), I started applying lotrimin cream yesterday. I'm still not 100% sure though. Any ideas here?

Here's a picture of Tatum's ear. Sorry it's a bit blurry. She wasn't very cooperative. Plus a picture of her because she's beeyooteeful 

These are links to the pics because the system wouldn't let me upload them for some reason:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2009-4/1338222/tatum.jpg
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2009-4/1 ... rbumps.jpg


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Welcome to CF, and I agree, Tatum IS beeyooteeful. Then I looked at the second photo and *gasped*! 8O Yeesh! I've got no clue! I think those spots look too small to be ringworm, I also know some cats (usually orange cats) get freckles around their lips, nose, eyes and ears, and I've seen black cats with some white-spotting in the skin of their ears...but because you say these are sores, I think I'd bring my cat to the vet to find out exactly what it is.
Heidi =^..^=

~just a quick opinion~
_I do not feel flea-collars do *anything* for the cat but keep fleas away from their neck and put a toxic/poison too close to their major organs (brain, heart, lungs). Also, "Hatrz", which is a common grocery-store pet-product provider is known for marketing products that have been harmful/deadly to our small pets. Your best flea products will be the spot-ons from Advantage, Frontline and Revolution._
h


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## MimiMorgan (Aug 14, 2009)

Thanks Heidi! I don't think they're freckles because they're hard and raised, almost like warts. The only reason I thought maybe chiggers was because I saw some pictures of what they look like on humans, and they're pretty much identical. (Here's one picture of chigger bites http://www.dailyyonder.com/files/u2/chigger370_1.jpg).

I can't afford a vet just now (when can I ever, darnit), but there is a volunteer organization here that helps pay for vet costs. So it will probably come to that. In the meantime I guess I'll put the 
Lotrimin on once a day, and maybe Vaseline once a day to suffocate the chiggers? Seems better than doing nothing, but then maybe doing nothing would be better.

Thanks for the tip about the flea collars. My husband insisted on buying them, but I should have been more vocal about my misgivings.


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## MimiMorgan (Aug 14, 2009)

PS

Never mind about the "suffocating chiggers" thing. Just did some research and apparently that's no effective, as the chiggers don't actually reside in the skin.

I'm stumped....


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Oh, I'm sorry you're stumped. I can see that you want to help your kitties. atback 
I thought the pic of that lady's leg looked terrible. It looks like what I think my foot/leg would look like if I stood barefoot in a red-ant nest and didn't try to get them off me before they began biting. Looks painful. Are the kitties scratching?, shaking their heads? ...I just can't imagine what could do that. I agree it has to be either contagious (_spreadable or shareable_) or some sort of bug-bite reaction. Do your kitties go outside at all? Mosquitos? (_okay, I was *realllly* reaching on that one_)
Hopefully some of our other members will have seen this and can chime in with good advice. Just give them some time...
heidi


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