Harvest Mites on cats

That is interesting! When my Bengal returned from one of her habitual weeks away over the fields, she had these around her ear tips. I assumed they were a larger form of flea which she had picked up from another species. I picked them off individually with a tick remover and put them into a container of water for disposal. I wondered why they didn't jump! I didn't show them to a vet, but went in to the surgery and they sold me a spray-on flea killer to use in addition to the already used spot-on treatment, as I had described them as fleas. This only happened once and they didn't return.

When my dog was younger, and liked to go for a run in the fields, at this time of year she would get terribly itchy. The vet said it was harvest mites and that he expected that she was allergic to them. The only solution was to bathe her regularly, and apply flea treatment. It helped to some degree but she still scratched herself more than usual.

Hmmm we live in country and in 20 years cats never had them before, maybe because it's a very hot autumn.

Not too confident in vet. I do have some medicated cat shampoo I was given a while ago, may bathe their ear tips with this.

I could try removing with tick remover, but they are very small, and on some cats are in ear crease as well as tips. I don't want them to spread more.

Thanks for your comments, didn't think I'd get any replies.