Sudden, (as in 24hrs) onset ear itching/discomfort and irritation in our 4 cats...?

Hello,

Have a question for any that might have a suggestion.

We have 4 indoor cats that do however have access to a "cat" fenced back patio area behind our town home. This area has several aspen trees and assorted shrubs. 

We recently had the perimeter of our town home sprayed for a spider problem in the bushes.

We were told to keep the cats in for that day & night but that the next day they should be able to go in the back area again because the bushes would be "dry" by that time.

Well now we have a sudden onset of all our cats experiencing twitching ear, scratching and shaking their heads as if in irritation.

We took the cat that is exhibiting the most discomfort thinking that perhaps it was mites...because we do help feed a few stray cats that come around who sometimes will come into our kitchen area (supervised) and eat and have a limited amount of contact with our cats, such as touching noses and brief head rubs.

We thought that it might simply be a case of coincidence that the spraying of the spiders/pesticide happened so close to the sudden exhibited signs of itching.

Also we could find nothing online about a similar incident. None are throwing up or not eating. They all are showing signs of distress and twitching of ears even when trying to rest and sleep.

Could they all be showing an allergic reaction to the pesticide rather than a case of being poisoned?

The vet could not find any signs of mites, the ears were pretty clean. Though they did suggest that we use a topical flea/mite ointment that is placed on their skin on their back between their shoulder blades. 

We did this yesterday morning and there doesn't seem to be any change in their behavior or irritation/discomfort level thus far.

We are at a loss as to what to do that will actually help...without knowing for sure what's causing the problem it's hard to do what needs to be done. 

We're in the process of finding out the name of the pesticide used. Hopefully will know today or tomorrow.

We'd love any ideas or suggestions that might help!

Best Regards,

Stu      

Hi there and welcome to the cat site, 

This is a tough one and I am not sure of the answer. It could be caused by the pesticide or they could be having an allergic reaction to something else. You could try using an ear cleaner to see if that helps. 

Itchiness and ear discomfort can also be caused by diet and cats can suddenly develop allergies to their food. This is very common in cats fed a grain heavy diet. Looking into switching them to grain free wet diet may be something to consider it the problem doesn't resolve soon. In my opinion (www.catinfo.org) is a great site on feline nutrition which may give you some good ideas on species appropriate diets.

Good luck and keep us posted! 

Will do, thank you for the suggestion.

We currently feed them a mix of dry and wet...will look into how much grain they're getting.

Regards,

Stu

Welcome to TCS!

Since all your cats suddenly started exhibiting the same symptoms, it very likely is something external like the pesticide causing the trouble. Did your vet recommend cleaning their ears? Perhaps you should call and ask whether it would be okay to wipe them with water.

Hi,

All the ears actually look clean...but we're using a Zymox Otic Enzymatic Solution with Hydrocortisone, as well as trying some coconut oil.

There might be some improvement...but if there is it's fairly small atm

Will keep updates coming!

Thank you  

Great you are seeing some improvement. I was also thinking even though it could very well be a reaction to the pesticide ,ear issues do crop up in a lot of pets if they are outside in the summer. My cats are inside only but my dog does go outside, obviously, and she has had several bouts of itchy ear problems and some infections  (though they have decreased since her being on raw and wet food). It does take a bit of time for ear drops to work. When I treat my dog for ear problems I clean them out first with a cotton pad dipped in which hazel. You may want to ask your vet if that is ok for cats but I have found cleaning is super helpful when treating ear issues. You can also just buy a commercial ear cleaner found at any pet store.