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Why does my outdoor cat have bloody lumps on her head and ears?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Female | spayed | 5 years and 6 months old | 9 lbs

Weve moved to the irish countryside and my cat is constantly outdoors and in the last few days has come home with little lumps all over her head and behind her ears at the base. There is crusted blood on the lumps. Are these midge bites? We have lots of midges. She wears a flea collar and her flea treatment is up to date. I don't think they are flea bites as she usually gets these around the base of her tail. She is allergic to flea bites. Thanks for any help you can give.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on June 27th, 2017

This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment (advocate or advantage), then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

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