Help with giving eardrops!

Hey all,

Went to the vest yesterday with Smudge to have her check up and I mentioned that she keeps scratching her ears. Its not constant scratching but when she does it, she ends up hurting herself! Anyway, the vet diagnosed her with Ear Mites and gave us some Canaural to use. However, its easier said than done putting them in as she is still quite nervous around us (and the bf is quite nervous around her!) Any ideas? xx

Scroll down to saya's "advice on how to administer eye drops to my cats?" thread and read how hissy suggests to hold the cat - it works for ear drops too. Cross your ankles and sit on them too in case you have to raise up a little, this will keep the cat from back peddling out between your legs. Once you get the drops in you massage them down in the ear a bit, do the other ear and let go. Expect to have icky stuff shook out on you.

We managed to do it! Yay for me! lol We got a thick towel and wrapped her in it, Alex held her close to him and I put in the ear drops. One question though for all experienced in ear drops, we have just come home and Smudge has been scratching them and they are bleeding a little Is this something that comes with using the eardrops?

One of our boys has had chronic ear infections since he was a baby. Scratching and some bleeding is normal behavior as a cats ears have tons of nerve endings and are very sensitive. The best way to prevent the scratching from drawing blood is to keep nails cut very short. It sounds like you did the same thing we do to hold them. Just wrap her in a little "kitty burrito", have someone hold her. The put a liberal amount into the ear canal, and rub the bulb of the ear for a minute or two to make sure the drops are being distributed throughout the entire ear. Most times if you just put it in and then let them go they will shake most of the liquid out. Ramsay still gets upset when he gets ear drops, but he's much happier when they're clean.

It's mostly from the ear mites and the build up gunk in the ears, some cats are more sensitive and determined to scratch and dig, though. When you catch her scratching at them, lightly but firmly grab her foot and push it back to the floor and tell her "No scratching", say it with a slightly reprimanding tone but not like you're mad at her.

My Sho is a scratcher and has one ear that puts out more wax then the other (also the side he likes to sleep on). Because I've always stopped him like that, I can tell him from across the room "ah ah, no scratching" and he'll stop. If it really looks to be bothering him I'll tell him "I'll get the itchy" for him and rub it a little.

If the back or outer inside of her ears are scratched you can clean them with some peroxide and put a little antibiotic ointment on them. That will help them heal quicker.

Hope you get the ear mites all gone soon!