My cat has orange parasites in her ears. What are they and how to treat?

They do look like seed ticks to me. They need to be removed. Get a small jar and pour a half inch of so of isopropyl alcohol in the bottom. If you have a set of fine tweezers or forceps, grasp the tick next to the skin and pull, being careful not to pinch your cat. If your cat isn't cooperative, you can dap a bit of petroleum jelly on the tick, which will block their pores so they can't breathe then they will back out after a while. You can also bathe your cat in a good flea and tick shampoo labeled for use on cats (Adams works well). Trim his claws first for your own safety and put a drop of mineral oil or a tiny strip of a non-medicated eye ointment (Artificial Tears is a good one) to keep the shampoo from stinging his eyes. Apply the shampoo generously, work it into a thick lather and let it stay on for at least ten minutes. You may need to use your fingernails to gently scrape the ticks loose from the skin, then rinse him thoroughly, making sure to remove all the shampoo from his coat. Towel dry very well and if he will tolerate it, use a blow dryer to dry him completely, using the warm, not hot setting.

You can buy Frontline spray and wipe your kitten with this. Wet a q-tip with the spray and just gently insert it into the kittens ear to wet the ear canal. Do not push it hard, do not twist it and do not try to clean the ear. If this does not work within the next few days, you will need to take your kitten to a vet for ear cleaning and treatment.

It is very hard to say if they are fleas, harvest mites, ear mites or something else. The best thing to do will be getting a good flea treatment for Pebble (spot-on form will be the best). Many of good flea treatment products are also effective against harvest mites (for example fipronil, selamectin) or are effective against ear mites (Advocate). Please, get one of them from a pet shop or your vets and use on Pebble, it should help quickly.

Poor kitten! I would recommend giving a Capstar tablet by mouth - this can be purchased over the counter, and will kill all fleas on the kitten within a few hours. Once she is 8 weeks old, you can apply a topical flea prevention such as Frontline or Advantage to keep this problem from happening again. I would not recommend attempting to physically remove the fleas from her ear, as you could easily damage her eardrum or cause other problems - once they are dead, they should come out on their own.

It looks like Chubby has been scratching his ears or that he has an infection of the outside of the ear. Since he was just treated for mites I’d recommend rechecking with your vet so they can see if he still has mites or an infection in his ear canal. There is not an over the counter medication that I would recommend using.

Poor kitties. YOu should be able to get both treatments from your local pet store. There are many variations to the brands available, but they should all be mostly effective. Tapeworm medication can come in the form of "Praziquantel" or some variations of this and some ear mite medications you may see are "Acarexx", "Milbemite" or some other off brand. 1 treatment should resolve the infections your kitties have. I would also recommend getting them on a flea preventative (if they are old enough) to prevent re-infection with tapeworms, since tapeworms come from flea ingestion or ingestion of poop that is infected with them. Clean their litter boxes regularly as well to prevent re-infection. I hope that your little fur babies get rid of their parasites soon! Best wishes and take care.

Fleas or mites would still be at the top of my list. Unless there are a very large number of mites, you may not always see them by just looking. Collecting a sample of ear wax and looking under a microscope can help you find a few, but often ear mite treatment is still used even when there is only suspicion and no actual evidence of ear mites. Fleas don't live on a pet, they only jump on at meal times, so it is easy for a cat owner to miss them - especially since cats are very good at grooming them off before you can see! I would talk to your vet about a prescription topical flea and mite treatment called Revolution. Since Frida Katio (wonderful name, btw!) is indoor/outdoor that lives in Texas (parasites love this state, too!), she should be on a good preventative year round. Other potential causes for the scratching and twitching include bacterial or yeast ear infection (would need diagnosis by looking under a microscope), nasopharyngeal polyp (may need an exam under anesthesia or using and endoscope), or other allergies, like environmental or food.