Ear Infection ???

Hi there, we have a little bit of a possible medical emergency over here and I was wondering if anyone could help out.

One of our cats has black *stuff* running building up and running out of its ears, it looks quite disturbing. Other symptoms include vomiting (twice now), and a general lack of energy. Usually, this fellow is the active one in our batch, playful and relaxed, but now he just sits still all day looking disconsolate only moving to vomit or when we touch him. Our other two cats are fine and very playful, is there are any risk of transmission of the illness?

Last weekend, we got them vaccinated (they're about 5 months old), de-wormed and bathed at a pet shop all at the same time, and I'm worried one of those has gotten to them. For the first few days, they ate slightly less, but of our three, only one seems not to have recovered. The vet's won't be open for three days because of a holiday where I live, so is there any immediate action that I can take?

Thanks a lot.

That does sound very disturbing. Is there possibly an emergency vet *anywhere* near you? If not, sometimes individual clinics will list their emergency # in the yellow pages, too.

Ear infection could be possible...especially after getting his ears wet for that bath. I'm not sure though, it could be any number of things.

Is the black "stuff" maybe blood? Poor baby. Please try and find some help ASAP.

Alright, we had a quick check and we now know for sure that the black substance building up in our poor cat's ear is neither blood nor earwax. Well, I highly doubt that we'll be able to get him to the vet's before Wednesday or so, is there anything that I could buy, or some sort of home remedy, that I could apply to his ear temporarily?

I'm sorry you're going through this...he really needs to see a doctor.

To me it sounds a lot like an ear infection. Is he up and around, walking okay?

If you absolutely can't get to a vet, all I can say is keep him hydrated. You can give him pedialyte with a dropper. If he's not keeping food down, that's not a good sign and he will get dehydrated quickly.

Please try and find a vet.

Well, he's been up and walking around for a bit now, but definitely not as active as normal. Right now, he's scrunched up on the couch, when usually he would be fully stretched out, which is his preferred position. He looks mostly miserable and not really in pain or anything, which we are mildly relieved about. I'll try to keep him hydrated, but I guess there's not much else we can do until the vet's opens again.

Thanks a lot for the help beandip!