★★★★★
My bull terrier picked up a nasty case of ear mites from an encounter with an especially filthy ferral cat. Because she's vet-shy here's the cure our vet had us do at home with ordinary earth-friendly products.
First we irrigated the ears with vinegar, which changes the pH and kills adult mites. Then we put 5 drops of heavy oil (olive would have been okay but we used jojoba) in each ear and gently massaged the base of the ear before allowing her to shake it out again. The jojoba really did wonders to stop itching and speed up healing.
The vinegar changes the pH in the ear, killing the eggs and the oil drowns live mites and soothes the ear. We irrigated and bathed weekly and oiled every other day.
Irrigations took place in the tub to restrict mess and so I could immediately bathe her in a pyrethium-based flea/tick soap; treating only the ears and not the entire body allows mites to flee the ear during treatment, then move back in. Our other dogs had their ears swabbed with hydrogen peroxide daily to prevent transmission.
We continued treatment for 5 weeks to be extra safe, but things noticably improved after the first treatment.
