A warning about ear notching

A few years ago when I got my strays fixed at a low cost clinic there procedure was to notch all stray/feral cats on one ear. When I saw what they did to one cat I was horrified. Instead of just cutting off the tip the removed HALF the ear to the point it almost looks like an ear crop. The worst part is these cats were released after on no antibiotics with an open wound on the ear! After this luckily I didn't have any more cats I had to bring in, but the otherwise healthy Maine coin mix whom was like a show cat in looks now had a botched looking ear and that hindered people wanting to adopt him, but the worst part he now has bad ear issues because of it and being finding a vet who will treat him sometimes he goes all year with infections and the winter wind blowing in his ear.

Bottom line, ear tipping ok, ear notching NOT ok never allow them to do this to your cats my stray had to suffer because of there mistake!

WOW- that does sound very severe :shame:. I have never heard of "ear Notching" I have also never, ever had a problem with an "ear tip" getting infected, sore, or not healing quickly. 1/4 of the ear is taken off and then cauterized and heal very quickly, this is reasonable and must be done to identify a feral cat as already being sterilized living outside in a colony. I shudder to think that a TNR vet is "notching" or "cropping" off ears so drastically.

Also, most compassionate people will look past the ear tip when adopting a "friendly" or "socialized" feral cat that has been brought in. AND if they do care more about the "look" of the cat with the tipped ear, then they are not really seeing the real beauty inside and out of that particular cat and don't deserve that cat. In other words, the cat is better off not being adopted to such shallow people. Actually, we find that many of the cat's with the tipped ears get wonderful homes because people feel sympathetic for the horrible start in life these cat's endured and open up their hearts and homes to these ear tipped kitties.

I am sorry your stray kitty has such a problem with the ear

Yeah ear tipping is fine, but this was more than a tip removed and although after blood wasn't running it looked like a rush job to me. I'm assuming due to half missing any windy days will mean lots of air blowing in his ear irritating it. I did complain after, not sure if it helped but I said it looked horrible and wasn't supposed to have that much taken off, but the damage was irreversible.