All right. So we're going to go through our top feline dermatological presentations here. As Steve mentioned I am ER.  I tend to speak really quickly. I will very much try to slow down. He will probably have to remind me once or twice. But do remember, we can go to our notes and we will have these up if there's stuff that I've just spoken too quickly. So I'll apologize ahead of time. This is my cat, Thomas. You will probably see him, in this frequently. I enjoy taking pictures of him, and I needed some good fun not sick kitty pictures. 

So. All right, so we are going to go through the top things we see in feline dermatology. We're going to go through. And I kind of put them almost in order of like good to bad in a way. We're going to go through ear mites. We're going to talk about ringworm, flea allergy dermatitis. We will go through this fun eosinophilic granuloma complex. I will stumble over that word every time. And then we are going to go through our top skin tumors we see in cats. We will briefly touch on a few other types, but these four are the primary we see. So that's basal cell tumors, squamous cell carcinoma, mast cell tumors and our very famous for fibrosarcoma. We're going to focus on injection site fibrosarcoma. Here is our angry derm kittie here just ready to go. 

So let's start with ear mites. This is nice and fun. So our classic case is when we have those mites in their ears, they are causing a hypersensitivity reaction. So it is a reaction to, to the mites, basically saliva, not the mites themselves. Because the mites feed on the debris of the ear canal, the fluid, the skin cells, kind of gross. And then they have this very classic, what we call coffee ground debris in the ears. So it's more than just that dark, waxy debris. It really does look like coffee grounds almost has a texture to it, in a way. Most common in our younger cats, kittens. And that's because it's most frequently transmitted, from the mother. But it is transmittable at older ages, and this is a very pruritic disease. So there is lots of head shaking, scratching, we'll see of the ear and around the ears as well. And they do self trauma when you see that much scratching. So you often see scratches around the ear, on the pinna, along the face. And that self trauma can actually be pretty serious. The ears themselves will look pretty red. Pretty erythematosus. And we also have an, otitis externa that goes along with that. So very frequently we're going to see some bacteria and other things in those ear canals. Rarely those gross little mites will decide to move out of the ears and we can get some lesions on the body, mostly around the ear, on the head and neck, but it will also move to sort of the rump and tail head, where we will sometimes think of more like fleas. So something to keep in mind if you're seeing that is to always check those ears. Make sure we don't have mites. Alright. And there's a picture of the kind of classic that you can see just how dark that is compared to kind of normal, you know, debris. 

And this is our fun little ear mite here, we're looking at psychologically. And we the classic way of finding these guys is to take those ear swabs, put them, on a slide, look under mineral oil, and you will see these guys. They'll be moving around. It's pretty gross. Well, there's a couple of other things you can do even before that to get an idea. There's something called the ear pedal reflex, where if you're rubbing that ear the same back hind leg, the ipsilateral hind limb comes up and, like, scratches aggressively. And it's such an intense reflex that sometimes when you have them sedated or even, like under light anesthesia, if you do that, that foot will still try to come up. So that's one way we can tell. If you look, just with a regular otoscope, you actually can sometimes see these mites moving. They'll look like teeny tiny little white specks moving around in the otoscope. Again. Super gross. But cytology is really how we're seeing. And we're also looking for bacteria in there and eggs. So that is how we diagnose the little buggers. 

And then treatment wise, we obviously want to clean out those ears. We want to remove the physical debris. And then there are otic preparations to put in, several different types, lots of different brand names out there. milbemycin is, let me check in my notes, milbemite is the the brand name of that. There's ivermectin solutions. There's acarexx which is ivermectin. Honestly, in the field with spay neuter, there's been times where I'll put a very tiny drop of ivermectin in each ear. It does work. It's quite off label. But it does work. And then really importantly is to make sure we get, a miticidal spot on that's going to last longer. So we clean those ears, we kill the mites that are in there. But similar to fleas, they're going to hang out for a little while. So we need something that's going to last a bit longer. So, selamectin, moxidectin, there's lots of options out there. Revolution, bravecto. I'm a personal fan of for bravecto or revolution. But advantage multi will do it as well. Just make sure it also get mites. Remembering that this is a very contagious disease. So if you have one cat in a household with them, you know, it's a fair bet that you need to look at everybody and treat everybody at the same time. If you're trying to treat in sequence, you're just going to get reinfections. And that goes between dog and cat. So you have to look at all, all the furry mammals in the house. And then similar to fleas, these guys will live in the environment kind of gross. So we need to clean the environment, how we might clean for fleas. And we're actually going to go into that a little bit with the flea allergy dermatitis, but bedding and floors and just helping the clients realize the cleanliness. But again, having that longer acting miticidal in place for when they do hatch out in the home, which they're going at least a little bit, they're dying right away and not reinfecting. And then try to remember to treat those secondary infections. You can see this kitty here has a lot of self-induced trauma around their face from itching that that's going to need an oral antibiotic or maybe an injection of convenia, it's going to need to stay clean. We might even need an e-collar to prevent more self trauma while this is healing. So don't forget to treat the rest of that. And maybe some, analgesics for this. This cat looks like it would be pretty painful too. So don't forget to treat the rest of it while we're treating those ear mites. But they do, you know, they clear up pretty quickly. And then rechecking a swab, four weeks post treatment that can help, you know, that it's resolved. And again, remember to check some housemates too. 

So a few extra things. Again, cats and dogs can infect themselves. This is Thomas picture number two. Sleeping very next to his, very close to his dog buddy. And they will infect each other. So remember to treat everybody. There is a zoonotic potential for people too. They can bite people. It tends to like forearm bites. Not so much the ears. Although I vividly remember a story, from a dermatologist in vet school who told the story of another dermatologist who had self infected ear mites and described the sound that they made constantly, which is really gross. But, you know, the animals probably hear the same thing. So we want to make sure we get them out. But the prognosis is excellent. Again, they can reoccur. But treatment is very effective. And that mite life cycle as why you have to really watch the environment. They have a three week life cycle and a two month lifespan, but they can live in the environment off those hosts for for weeks. and survive that.