Mites in ears?

My new mare has big beautiful ears which go pretty well with her big beautiful body. But she shakes her head a lot and when I felt inside her ears she was obviously pretty itchy in there. Any advice? Could she have mites inside? Or something else? Can I try E45 cream to ease the itching or do we need to do anything more heavyweight like consult a vet? I don't want her to get a head shaking habit.

What a pain!! Ear mites in horses are treated basically by ivermectin, although, as with dogs, you can use pure olive oil. However... it's not easy putting something into a horses ears, especially if they're itchy, personally I think this is one for the vet.
pen

............and if you do use olive oil, make sure it's body temp, nothing worse than something cold trickling in your ear

.. 'ear...'ear

does oral Ivermectin help ??

only it does for normal skin mites / scabies

only thinking it would be 100 x easier to do ...!

worth a research anyway

If the ear is 'crusty' inside that is usally a sign of ear mites being in there. If applying olive oil, use at body temperature, apply liberally onto cotton wool and wipe all of inside of ear gently. Don't use the same cotton pad for both ears, use a fresh one for each. If it's bad get the vet out, one trip should do it.

If it was me, I'd give the mare her favourite treat at the same time if poss, so she associates having her ears 'oiled' with a treat, as she will need it doing a few times.

Thanks for this - very helpful, except problem gone now along with the mare who has taken her itchy ears with her. I think it may have been midges as I bought her a great big fly hood with ear protectors and this seemed to help.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Ah well. Info there for next equine with itchy lugholes!