What's going on with my cat's ears?

[wednesdaynamesep]

My boy cat spends a LOT of time outdoors. He can vanish for a week before bothering to come home.

My cat has lots of bumps all over his ears. First happened a year ago, and a vet told us he must have some kind of allergy.

It happened again, and the second vet told us it was fleas, and because he was outdoors so much we needed to treat him every month - more frequently than normal. This made sense because it seemed to get better the first time after we treated him for fleas.

I've been doing that, but his ears are looking horrible again. It's a combination of old scars, some scabs and a couple of raw spots.

Just to say as well that I've never seen a flea on him, but the second vet found a couple.

One of mine is a bit like this at the moment. Took him to the vet yesterday. Flea treatment is up to date. Only given 2 weeks ago (vet dispensed one so should be reliable).
Verdict was that there are lots of biting insects out there at the moment and it was probably flies or midges biting him. He's also out most of the time.
They gave him something in tablet form and said not to apply next flea treatment for a month. So I think it was an alternative flea/parasite treatment just to deal with whatever is munching him.
He seems quite chilled although also moulting like nobody's business at the moment too!

Harvest mite allergy?

My cat always used to get like this the first hot spell each year. I always thought it was a reaction to the sun - heat bumps.

He didn't have much hair on his ears. I used to put sun lotion on his ears. The bumps calmed down after a few days.