Ear problems

ramcheer55

My cat has dark brown "gunk" in her left ear.  When we first adopted her our vet charged us a ridiculous amount to put in drops for ear mites.  Well I wasn't convinced that they were ear mites because they didn't fit any of the descriptions of ear mites that I've read.  But we went along with it because we wanted to protect our kitty and the vet should know best.  It did go away for some time, but she's 1 and a half years old and she's still getting it.  It's only in her left ear and it comes and goes.  I check her ear every few weeks to keep an eye on it because one time it got really bad and took awhile to clear up so I've been monitoring it since then.  It's a dark brown ear waxy like build up.  I swab it out with a Q tip as much as she'll let me and we even bought drops to put in when it gets bad but I think it makes it worse because it makes it wet and usually the next day it seems worse than before I used the drops.  When it's bad, it's really gunky and I can get about 4 Q tips with both ends of the tip full of this gunk.  Her ear also will get red and she'll shake her head and will hold her hear down.  I feel so bad that this keeps happening.  Like I said, it comes and goes so some months there's nothing or just a few little bits that I get off to prevent it from building up.  I do give her baths periodically and use a foaming waterless shampoo to keep her fresh in between.  We clean her litter box very regularly and she's strictly an indoor cat so I know it's not something she's getting into outside.  Does anyone else have anything like this and could recommend something to clear it up?

erollis

Is it an ear infection or fungus of some sort? Call around and find a good vet that will be able to help your poor kitty. 

cs026a

Yeah I'd head back to the vet (yours or a different one). Sometimes if you don't effectively treat mites (for long enough), they can come back. I had a kitten that had mites once, and they were soooo itchy for him we had to treat them asap. Being that your kitty has lived so long with the problem, I find it hard to believe it's mites too (my cat would have had his whole head scratched raw by then!). 

ramcheer55

I def. don't think it's mites...it really just appears to be a brownish gunk.  I've researched what mites look like and some symptoms and she doesn't have any of them.  She occassionally will stop and scratch her ear and shake it a bit but not to the extent to indicate that it's bothering her.  She is do at the vet soon for her annual check up so I will bring it up then...until then I'll just monitor it.  Today it def. isn't as red and the "gunk" appears to be a little more dried out.

ifeelgoodifeelgreatifeelwonderful

You can buy just an ear cleaning solution at the pet store. I have a dog and a cat and I bought mine in the aisle with dog stuff (after getting some from the vet for a lot more money) but it says it is for cat's too. You can put it on a cotton ball and then really wipe out the brown gunk and maybe get it easier than using a q-tip. If it still doesn't go away then you can go to the vet and get drops. Hope your kitty feels better.

KCandJR

My dog has had the same problem and my vet said that it could be a moisture build up similar to a yeast infection. We clean her ear every other day and use OTC yeast infection ointment to help soothe the itching. We also paid for the drops from the vet which fixed the problem on a temporary basis but not permanent.