ear mites? )in cat(

Well; Inky escaped and managed to be ouside for a full 24 hours. He is itching his ears like mad today.. I fear that he ahs ear mites. I am not worried about fleas, because we treated him with Advantage last week. Now I am doubtful that the advantage works on mites.. not sure. I looked in his ears though and see nothing..
He also has a half-inch scratch on his rump. I felt it while petting him, as a lumpy scab; looked to make sure it wasn't a tick. Any recommendations? We are taking him to the vet but the soonest we can is tomorrow. I don't want to put neosporin on because of course, cats lick..

There a couple of good ear mite remedies. Milbemite is the most effective we've used so far, but not all vet hospitals use it...it has the advantage of a very short treatment period.
Tresaderm is also very good, but can be difficult to administer, since it must be kept refrigerated and even the best-tempered cat will object when you pour ice-cold liquid in its ear every day for a week. If you have to do Tresaderm, I highly recommend shoving him head first into the sleeve of an old shirt until his head pops out where your hand would be. Keeps all the pointy bits safely restrained. :-)
Revolution also works, but takes a while to kill them off and you have to do an ear cleaning too to get the itchy crud out.

However....if he only had his run-in yesterday, it's unlikely he picked up ear mites at that time. The eggs are transferred passively from one animal to another and take four days to hatch, followed by a breeding cycle before you see an active infestation. If he has mites, he must have acquired them previously. Other possibilities are an injury to the ear incurred during his battle, or an allergy to something he encountered while on his adventure. Your vet will be able to do an ear swab and see what's going on down there.

And yes...topical ointments on cats are usually a waste of time.

I am glad to read that :) He is less itchy today, even back to normal; he does not overreact and scratch with his back leg if I itch his ear. I know that there are really odd plants growing outside the barn he ran into.. I would be afraid of what weird chemicals they could have in them! Some of them look like they are about to give birth to alien life or something..!
We are being 100% more vigilant with the doors staying shut now.. if people come over, Inky is getting shut in the bedroom with his litter pan and food/water. I am not ever letting this happen again. Period!