I need a bit of an advice on ears.

Bindi has always had waxy ears. Every year vet looks and cannot find anything parasitic and she has her ears cleaned well (the way I never can). She has had that ampule for fleas and mites once and I noticed this cleaned her ears for a long while (forget the name but only on prescription in UK).

So now we are in USA and she has had dirty ears which I am regularly cleaning but she seems to be irritated and is scratching them so I booked a vet for next week (no closer appointments).
Is there anything I can buy over the counter in USA that deals with ear mites (in case she has any) in the meantime? I would like to avoid dealing with daily ear drops as she is pretty irritated each time I try to go near her ears but maybe that ampule thingie for the neck? Can anyone recommend?

Both of our cats are indoor but go on balcony and there are some plants on the balcony so they may have come across mites I guess. Nini's ears are very clean but I saw that Bindi tends to clean inside her ears whereas she does not return the favour

Thank you in advance :)

It could very well be ear mites. What I find strange is that with Raiden's vet, I just walk in with him and he is seen. They have one vet daily who sees all the walk-ins. Yes, I can get an appointment, but if Raiden has an immediate issue, I just take him over. All the vets in the practice have seen him over the years. I don't know what it's like to "wait" for an appointment. And, thankfully, our vet is 2 miles down the road.

So I took her to the vet and I had, what a consider really weird experience. The surgery came recommended by the way.

In UK, cats would go in once a year for a check up and the vet would clean their ears if needed, weigh them etc. Today, specifically I made an appointment saying I need Kalinda's ears cleaned and checked for mites etc.

The vet checked ears and run the tests and said there were no mites. She had no fleas either but he still recommended flea treatment saying even cats living on 50th floor need flea treatments just in case a flea gets into the apartment.
I used to get one flea treatment a year to make sure they have no mites but did not consistently treat them as they are indoor cats.

He said her ears have some wax and no infection but he thinks she might be producing wax because she is allergic to something and he actually have us good advice on that, to watch what makes her itchy.
I was cleaning her ears every couple of weeks recently whereas usually, a good once a year clean at the vet would last her a while so could well be allergy - I will try cutting out dry food as they often add yeast and sugars to it.

Despite allergy being the likely thing, I had to sign a disclaimer that I agree with what vet prescribes and he gave us some cortisol drops and flea treatment for some months. The bill was considerable.
He also advised that when bringing her in next time we call in advance and get anti convulsant medication as this makes them drowsy. I was pretty shocked to hear that a healthy animal who is, by the way, pretty good at the vet's should be given a medication to induce side effects. I also felt he was happy to send us home with lots of medication without really finding anything he gave us treatments for. I was uneasy arguing as I signed a disclaimer. I asked him to clean her ears - this was what I booked a visit for, and he said her ears were pretty clean (uhm, no there was lots of wax in them and I thought he would put drops in and clean them like our UK vet used to) and did not want to do it.
I felt quite bad about the whole thing.

I must say we took Nini to vet hospital when she swallowed sticky grass and they were great, but they are just emergency hospital, so I thought vet would do usual care things, like ear clean. They had a disclaimer but also an option to tick that any treatment has to be cleared by us first, which the vet today did not have.

Oh and he also said raw chicken was bad for them and asked me if I eat raw chicken myself and dismissed me saying cats stomachs can take bacteria we can't. So yeah... is this usual experience in USA? Where do you take cats to have ears cleaned for example? Feel a bit weird now. Kind don't want to go back.

If you don't feel comfortable with your vet I would say it's best to find another, no matter how highly recommended he comes. You should always feel comfortable with the person treating your pet. I must say it feels like a strange thing having to sign a disclaimer like that. How can you ever know what you are agreeing to beforehand? Maybe I'm missing something here, but I wouldn't like having to sign something like that.

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Linus & Rascal

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I have never signed a disclaimer and have never been sent home with medication for a condition that did not exist! I'm going to recommend finding a different vet! I live in the US, although in the middle of the US. As for the flea medication -- I would recommend that only because fleas can come into the house on YOU and then hop off and get on the cat and if you ever get a male and female, you will have 2 billion baby fleas that will attack you and eat you and your baby alive! Seriously -- you want to keep them under control.

Periodically may be fine. And in colder temps, they are not as active. If you live in a warm state, fleas are just horrible. You may live in similar weather as you did before. Flea meds are expensive but I give mine theirs year around. Naturally, vets hope you get the medication from them. I now give Bravecto, which is $55 from the vet, but I order online for $39.99. It is good for 12 weeks.

It's helpful to know if there are other pets next door to your place in the building, and also what the rodent situation is.

I have a cat that survived a flea/tick medication poisoning, and my vet agreed that because we live in an apartment building with no pets next door, none of the cats needs to be treated.

I certainly would prefer to NOT have to put this medication on the cats. But the alternative is to have fleas in the house, especially because Raiden goes for walks outside and has an outdoor enclosure. Back in the late 70's we moved out of our home and when my husband went back to have the painter start painting, they were inundated with fleas jumping all over them. Back then there was no flea medication. It was shampoo or flea collar and my cat didn't want a flea collar and even though we used a shampoo on the dog (we had one back then), it didn't always work. We had to have the entire home treated before anyone could step foot inside again.

Well I am not against flea meds but really don't see the point using that religiously when in winter, the cats won't even venture on the balcony. I don't think I bring fleas back to the point they would cause a massive problem and if they did, I would notice that as fleas love me (I usually get bitten first).
It was mostly other stuff he suggested, like drugging her with anti convulsants so he has a docile cat when my cat was only being mouthy (growling) and never actually moved when he was examining her. They have never scratched anyone or been hostile, just vocal. I will not be going back to that surgery to be honest. I felt he was not listening to me and I paid for meds I don't need. We have not treated her ears with ear drops either after he said it could be an allergy to something. I stopped giving them Blue Buffalo dry and she seems to be not scratching any more so maybe it was that.