I am glad that problem was easily solved! I recently took our cat to the vet because he had odd red spots in front of his ears. They seemed to come and go. I never saw him scratch at them, but he would shake his head as if his ears felt odd. He doesn't have ear mites, and the best the vet could come up with is he must be allergic to something. So he has drops for his ears now. He disapproves of them, of course.