Hi -- it has been a while since I posted (back when I had Seldon, Dors, Dantes -- my first post was in October 93, not quite as early as some), but I wanted to pass on again this tip to some of you who may be unaware of the ease of this. Radio shack used to sell a 30x hand held illuminated microscope. They may still sell that model; I think they sell something like it if not that one. The 100x one is not necessary. You can diagnose for yourself ear mites with this thing. Warning: not for the faint of heart. Take a swab of your pet's ear with a qtip, look at it under the microscope, and if they have ear mites you can *quite* clearly see the wiggling little fat white bodies of ear mites, legs and all. I almost went permanently insane when I saw them the first time, but I have become slightly desensitized. I just looked at one of my current pets' samples, and the poor little guy had about 3 of them just on that one small, not very thorough sample. It's no wonder the poor little devil was going mad scratching. [MW] [Posted in FML issue 5347]