what's wrong with my vet?

Hi there
I have a 9-month-old cat, Zez. We live in Bucharest, Romania.
Last week i took him to the vet, because he kept scratching his ears.
i found out he has ear mites.

Here comes the problem: the vet takes a huge metal thing, puts a little bit of cotton on it and starts scratching inside of his ears. the cat obviously starts meowing, tries to get away. there comes some blood on the cotton, along with that brown wax. it seems to me that she wasn't paying atention to what she was doing, and went too deep into his ears. she told me that it's ok, it can't hurt him. is it true?

- is it ok to put metal things into a cat's ear?
- the vet told me to use cotton buds in order to clean Zez's ears - how deep can i go? i use ear cleaning stuff

-yesterday he got an antibiotic shot - is it enough?
Should we see another vet?

It's hard to say whether your vet was too rough (it sounds like it, but without seeing it, you really can't tell), and no it's not good to put metal things into cats' ears, although vets may have to do this when examining etc. The blood may have come out on the cotton because the cat had already scratched his ears badly and hurt them, but it doesn't really speak well for the vet for not being careful IMO, the ear must be sore if there's even a bit of blood coming out. And yes, you can hurt a cat's ears by being too rough or going to deep with wrong instruments, and it's not recommended to go deep down with cotton balls when cleaning anyway, you'd only be pushing more gunk further into the ear, not getting it out. With a cotton ball, you only clean the areas you can see, not go down into the ear canal, that's what the cleaning fluids are for. You're generally supposed to pour some down into the ear, rub the ear from the outside (sort of below the ear, massage the ear canal from the outside, very gently of course) and let them shake the cleaning fluid off. And only use a cotton ball to clean the areas in the outer ear that you can reach just by using your finger with a cotton ball sort of wrapped around it.

If you mean your cat got nothing but the antibiotics for the mites, no it won't be enough. Antibiotics will not get rid of mites (did the vet say it was ear mites? if it's just an infection, the antibiotic shot may be enough to take care of it), you need special drops for that, antibiotics will only deal with an infection. I do think seeing another vet would be a good idea, this vet does not seem very gentle or good at explaining things. I always think that a good vet will make *sure* that you know what they're doing, what's the cause of the problem and how it will go from there, and how exactly you should continue treatment at home. And most importantly, you have to feel comfortable with the vet and trust them, and obviously you do not feel that way with this vet. If there are other options, I would definitely take the kitty in and get another opinion, and talk to them about the problem.

Hi vero and welcome to the boards!

Your vet kind of sounds like old school. The best way to get rid of ear mites is to soak a cotton ball in warmed up olive oil squeeze out the ball until it is damp, then gently roll it into the kitty's ear scooping gently up and out. The dried blood is what you should see on the cotton ball. You never want to go down past where you cannot see into the ear, and using cotton swabs or q-tips can puncture kitty's eardrum if you are in the wrong place and kitty is struggling, so always just use a roll of cotton.

Last year a new product came out here in the United States for the removal of ear mites and you rub it on the ear, not into it and it works great! You only apply it once. It is called Accarex, I don't know if your vet can get it or not.

Good luck with your kitty!

Hello and welcome to the board!

Like the others said, it can be hard to tell specially over the net if your vet was being too rough. But if you feel uncomfortable, then simply change to another vet, it can take a while to find one you like.
The bleeding might have been caused by the ear mites, if your cat had them for so long and untreated, it can cause the ears to bleed/scab.
When I first adopted my Isha from the local human society, she had ear mites, it was so frightening they were packed all the way up to the top of her ear! There was no opening any longer just mites and scabs, I wondered if she could even hear through that ear. She was treated and is fine now, I will never understand why the human society let something that bad 'slip'. Her brother Asim had it too, but not as bad.

Some cats are very sensitive about their ears, so he might not have been crying out of pain, just the fact that he was bothered.
Easest way to prevent this again, is to put drops in your cats ears themselves. You need to clean them even if they don't have mites. This will also help your cat get used to having his ears messed with.
All you need is some ear wipes, or ear drops and cotten balls.