Ear problems & behaviors because of it?

[Bburkhart]

Hello! My little Angus baby is a year old and his ears are SOOO dirty all the time (obviously I clean them often). A while ago he was scratching at his ear a lot, so I took him to the vet and she said that everything looked fine. Since, however, it sounds like he has fluid at the base of his ears. Also, my mom told me that when I was at work one night, she was massaging his ears and he shook his head and stuff came out of his ears. Clearly something is wrong, but I didn't know if any of you had experienced this before?

 

[GoldHazel]

Hello! My little Angus baby is a year old and his ears are SOOO dirty all the time (obviously I clean them often). A while ago he was scratching at his ear a lot, so I took him to the vet and she said that everything looked fine. Since, however, it sounds like he has fluid at the base of his ears. Also, my mom told me that when I was at work one night, she was massaging his ears and he shook his head and stuff came out of his ears. Clearly something is wrong, but I didn't know if any of you had experienced this before?

@Bburkhart I have not experienced the head shake and stuff coming out of the ears, but I have a few sphynx cats that have very dirty ears compared to the ones I have that have much, much cleaner ears. It seems to depend on how oily they are.

I'm not sure why your vet said nothing was wrong with Angus' ears, but how long of a period of time lapsed between the vet visit and what your mom witnessed? Certainly if it was a short amount of time between both, I'd find another vet asap.

When you say that you clean his ears often, how often do you clean them and what is your cleaning procedure? Basically, ears shouldn't be cleaned more than once a week. Also, I don't recommend putting an ear cleaning into the ear and massaging the ear base as I would suggest for a dog. Many sphynx cats (or many cats in particular) will foam at the mouth when you put the ear cleaning fluid directly into the ears like that.

So not to traumatize your cat and to get all the ear gunk out in a quicker fashion, my procedure is to first clean as much as I can with a dry Q-Tip, then wipe the ear out with a dry cotton ball. After I have removed just about all gunk that is visible, I then take a cotton ball with the ear cleaning fluid (squeeze out the cotton ball so it's not dripping wet) and wipe around again and again. I also slightly wet a few Q-Tips and go around the nooks and crannies doing the same.

I have personally found that putting the ear cleaning solution on a cotton ball right from the start of cleaning ears just makes a soupy, gunky mess which takes longer to clean. I'm referring to my sphynx cats with the very dirty ears.

But being that your sphynx seems to be very bothered by something in his ears, I certainly would get him checked again (possibly by another vet).

Please come back and update.

 

[admin]

Hello! My little Angus baby is a year old and his ears are SOOO dirty all the time (obviously I clean them often). A while ago he was scratching at his ear a lot, so I took him to the vet and she said that everything looked fine. Since, however, it sounds like he has fluid at the base of his ears. Also, my mom told me that when I was at work one night, she was massaging his ears and he shook his head and stuff came out of his ears. Clearly something is wrong, but I didn't know if any of you had experienced this before?

Here is a good video we made on ear cleaning.

 

[Hairless Blessing]

Welcome to sphynxlair, good to have you.
Good advice already given.
I wonder also, how often do you clean hid ears?
How and with what, do you clean?
Does h have any other itching, breaking out, puking?

 

[Bburkhart]

Thanks for the advice! No, he doesn't have any other itching, breaking out, or puking. He has been a little bit more agressive to my other cat, Olli, which is weird because usually they love each other. I clean both of my baby's ears about once a week. I took Angus back to the vet today just to make sure all was okay, and she told me the same thing she did before. Apparently, the real issue wasn't his ears, but his bladder. She gave him a shot and he bounced right back! Thank you all for your advice and feedback!!

 

[GoldHazel]

Thanks for the advice! No, he doesn't have any other itching, breaking out, or puking. He has been a little bit more agressive to my other cat, Olli, which is weird because usually they love each other. I clean both of my baby's ears about once a week. I took Angus back to the vet today just to make sure all was okay, and she told me the same thing she did before. Apparently, the real issue wasn't his ears, but his bladder. She gave him a shot and he bounced right back! Thank you all for your advice and feedback!!

@Bburkhart glad to hear he's doing better now. The only thing I can think of it maybe when your mom witnessed him shake his head and something came flying out ... it was just saliva or eye gunk that "flew" because he shook his head! I don't know what else to think being that he's ears are fine.

 

[BusterTheCat]

We took Buster to the vet last week for stomach issues and the vet said he might have a yeast infection in his ears (unrelated to stomach issues). His ears were constantly getting waxy and I was always trying to clean them but they would just get more wax. She prescribed ear drops and I give them to him twice a day. He surprisingly takes the ear drops very well which makes me think it feels good for him. I think his ears aren't getting as waxy as they usually do, too.