Phil P. wrote:


Not necessarily- as cats get older some cats build up an immunity to
the effects of ear mites. I noticed this phenomenon in a litter of
kittens with ear mites. The kittens were scratching their ears and
shaking their heads like crazy- but their mother was acting perfectly
normal even though her ears were infested too. I've also trapped some
ferals and strays that were infested, and I
wouldn't have known if I didn't check. The second infestation doesn't
seem to bother some cats as much as the first.

Well, that's a bit of a concern. Some of them had mites last year and
also three years ago.


The others are all clean and pink eared right now. In
theory, they shouldn't have a chance to pick up mites indoors, but it
has happened before.

Humans can serve as intermediate carriers (not in the ears, though).


Last year, none of the cats had been outside so my only guesses were that
I'd carried the mites in on my shoes or on catnip plant stems & leaves.