Notoedric Mange in Cats: The Feline Scabies
Few things distress a cat owner or a shelter worker, like a cat that will not stop scratching its head, with ears turning thick, grey, and crusty. Behind many such cases is a mite that most people have never heard of: Notoedres cati, the cause of notoedric mange, also called feline scabies. It is close kin to the mite that causes sarcoptic mange in dogs, and it follows a similar life cycle (Dryden, 2025). It is highly contagious between cats, it is uncomfortable, and if left untreated, it can be serious: severely affected cats may lose weight, develop secondary infections, and, rarely, die (Companion Animal Parasite Council [CAPC], 2007; Györke et al., 2022).
The good news is that the mite is easy to find under the microscope, and, with the right medicine at the right dose, the disease is curable (Torres, 2025). This article explains how, and it addresses two questions clients and shelter managers ask us most often: does my cat's breed change the dose? And how do we stop this from spreading through a shelter?
Notoedres cati belongs to the family Sarcoptidae, the burrowing mites. Adults are tiny and smaller than the canine scabies mite Sarcoptes scabiei (Torres, 2025). They are round-bodied and eight-legged as adults, with short legs bearing long, unsegmented stalks (pretarsi), and they spend their whole life on the cat (Torres, 2025; Western College of Veterinary Medicine [WCVM], 2021).
Two features help laboratory staff tell it apart from its cousin. First, its anus sits on the upper (dorsal) surface of the body rather than at the end, which is the classic feature that separates Notoedres from Sarcoptes (CAPC, 2007; Torres, 2025). Second, the female lacks the large triangular spines seen on the back of Sarcoptes (CAPC, 2007). Its back instead carries fine concentric ridges. Look closely at Figures 1 and 2.
The entire life cycle happens on the cat. Mites tunnel into the outermost layer of skin, the stratum corneum, where the female lays eggs (Torres, 2025). Following the Companion Animal Parasite Council (2007), eggs hatch in about four to five days. The six-legged larvae then moult into first-stage nymphs over roughly a week, and adults can emerge as early as about twelve days after hatching, although development commonly takes longer. Adults mate in shallow depressions in the skin, and fertilised females burrow in to lay the next generation, so the population can build up quickly. The whole cycle can be completed in under three weeks (WCVM, 2021).
Signs can take several weeks to a month to become obvious after the first exposure (CAPC, 2007). Intense itching is the hallmark of the disease (Dryden, 2025; Torres, 2025). Scratching and rubbing then break the skin, leading to crusts, thickening (lichenification) and, often, secondary bacterial infection (Torres, 2025; Györke et al., 2022). As with other burrowing mites, the itch is generally understood to reflect the skin's reaction to the mites, their eggs and their waste rather than the burrowing alone; that is background knowledge and not a finding of the studies cited here.
Notoedric mange spreads by direct contact: cats sleeping together, grooming each other, mothers to kittens, or fighting (Torres, 2025). Transmission via contaminated bedding and equipment is also possible (Dryden, 2025), although the mite survives only about three to four days away from a cat (Torres, 2025). In wild cats the mite may also be picked up from prey such as rabbits (CAPC, 2007).
That makes some settings especially vulnerable: animal shelters, catteries, stray-cat colonies, and multi-cat households. For example, two young cats from a rural home in Romania that had never received parasite prevention arrived underweight (body condition 3/9) with skin lesions and intense itching, and they also carried lungworm (Györke et al., 2022).
Notoedric mange has a recognisable pattern. Lesions typically begin at the ear tips, classically on the inner (medial) edge of the ear flap, and spread across the whole ear, the face, eyelids, head and neck, which is why it is sometimes called “face mange” (Dryden, 2025; WCVM, 2021). Itching is severe. Without treatment, lesions can spread to the feet, the genital and anal area and, eventually, most of the body (Torres, 2025).
Figure 7A. A cat with crusted, inflamed skin at the base of the ear and scaling over the nose Figure 7B. Advanced disease in a long-haired cat: thick, warty crusts on both ear margins Figure C. Thick, grey-yellow crusts building along the ear margin, with changes around the ear bases
Figure 7. Cats with mange (scabies) lesions on the ears and face, from early (C) to advanced (B) skin change. Different mange mites can cause similar lesions. Ear margins, face and neck are typical sites in notoedric mange (Dryden, 2025; Torres, 2025), and the mite responsible can only be identified from a skin scraping.
Unlike scabies in dogs, where mites are notoriously hard to find, notoedric mites are usually found easily on skin scrapings (Dryden, 2025; Torres, 2025). We scrape the crusted skin with a blunt scalpel blade, ideally at several sites and until slight capillary oozing is seen (Torres, 2025), and examine the material under the microscope. Mites may also turn up in faeces because affected cats swallow them while grooming (CAPC, 2007). We also look for other causes of head and neck itch: ear mites, ringworm, fleas, allergy and bacterial or yeast infection. In the Romanian cases above, the same cats also carried lungworm, a reminder that heavily parasitised cats often need a full parasite check (Györke et al., 2022).
Older treatments included lime-sulphur dips, which are effective but messy and smelly. Modern practice increasingly relies on spot-on products that combine a macrocyclic lactone or isoxazoline with other parasiticides. Table 1 summarises the doses and results reported in recent studies and standard references. These figures are for your veterinary surgeon's information and are not a do-it-yourself guide. Products, licensing and the correct dose for your cat vary by country and by individual, and some are used off-label.
Every cat that has been in contact with an affected cat should be treated, even if it looks normal, and bedding and grooming tools should be cleaned thoroughly (Torres, 2025). Secondary bacterial infection may need antibiotics, and severe cases may need pain relief and eye or ear care (Györke et al., 2022; Gatorland Animal Services, 2021).
Clients often ask whether a Persian needs a different dose from a Siamese or whether Maine Coons, Ragdolls, or other breeds need “special” doses of mange medicine. The evidence gives a nuanced answer, and it is one every cat owner and shelter should understand.
Maine Coon Siamese Ragdoll Cat
The brain is protected by the blood–brain barrier, and one of its guards is a pump called P-glycoprotein, produced from the ABCB1 (formerly MDR1) gene. It continuously pumps certain drugs back out of the brain. Many parasite medicines, including macrocyclic lactones such as ivermectin, selamectin, and eprinomectin, are pumped out by it, as is emodepside (Mealey & Burke, 2025). In cats, a two-base-pair deletion, written ABCB1 1930_1931del TC, disables the pump. A cat needs two copies of the variant (homozygous) to lack the pump entirely.
What does this look like in practice? In one published family, two Maine Coon cats developed dilated pupils, unsteadiness, tremors, temporary blindness, depression and heightened sensitivity to touch after routine injections of ivermectin at 0.1–0.2 mg/kg. Both carried two copies of the deletion, and the signs lasted from days to weeks (Nürnberger et al., 2022). That dose overlaps with the ivermectin range that mange references list (200–300 µg/kg; Torres, 2025), which is why the gene matters even when the dose is “correct” on paper.
A survey of 11,036 cats found the deletion in about 0.6% of cats overall. It was detected in Maine Coons (including polydactyl Maine Coons), Ragdolls, Siamese, Balinese, and Turkish Angoras, and also in non-pedigree cats (Anderson et al., 2022). In the Maine Coon family studied by Nürnberger et al. (2022), about half of the 52 relatives tested carried one copy, but none carried two, which shows that a family history can concentrate the variant well above the population average. Because the variant is recessive, most carriers of one copy are healthy.
Maine Coon Ragdoll Siamese Balinese Turkish Angora Blue Persian Cat
A single untreated cat can seed an outbreak in a shelter because mites move by direct contact and cats are housed close together. Tick the boxes below as your team implements each step. Evidence items come directly from cited sources; Good Practice items are common-sense infection-control steps that we recommend but that are drawn from a specific trial. Adapt them to your building, staff, and budget with your shelter veterinarian.
Book an appointment promptly if your cat has crusted ear tips or face, is scratching its head constantly, or lives with a cat that has a confirmed mite infestation. Please do not use over-the-counter or dog products, and do not treat by guesswork: an incorrect product, or a dose calculated by breed instead of weight can be dangerous for a cat with the ABCB1 variant. If your cat becomes unsteady, tremulous or lethargic after any parasite treatment, contact us the same day.
This article is educational and does not replace an examination by a veterinary surgeon. Doses quoted are from the cited studies and references and must be prescribed by a veterinary surgeon.
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