Cat decided to shake her head as I was trying to clean deep inside her messy ear with a cue tip/cott

Do you think I could have ruptured her ear drum? She has been scratching a lot at her ears & head recently (and she has a little lump about in the middle of her right ear that has scabbed over and fallen off once, and seems to be scabbing over again), and i was worried she could posibly have ear mites. I can't really afford to take her to the vets ATM, so I was just trying to clear some of the crap from inside there. However, she decided to suddenly shake her head quite hard when i had the cue tip somewhat inside what i would think to be the ear canal! Would it even be possible to have had the cue tip down far enough for it to be ruptured? Really worried here..

Thanks in advance

Well... I will say that you shouldn't really put a cotton bud down the kitties ears in the first place - we are not supposed to do it to ourselves for the same reasons - it can cause damage... please please don't do that again!!  She probably shook her head because of you putting something in her ear, causing irritation and she will do it again no doubt. If you want to clean the area if you can't afford a vet, then use a warm flannel or cotton pads and don't go too far in and think about cleaning drops.  If you think it is ear mites, then pick up some medicine drops for earmites.   I think for milder cases you can get drops from the shops (at least I think so)  but for a bad infestation the vet is your friend.

 I really do think you should go to the vet. Can you cut back and find the money somehow? It's probably more important now than ever to take the cat there because of possible damage from the cotton bud.  She may be in some pain now, as well as the irritation she already had.

Hope kitty will be ok!

OK, I have always heard that a cats ear canal is kind of at a 45 degree angle, so that you cannot actuallly get a Qtip into the canel.  Here is a picture I found on google that might help:  http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...sa=X&ei=YfGUUtHBG9TdoAS6loCICA&ved=0CC8Q9QEwA

Maybe you could just CALL your Vet and ask if there is any way you could have harmed her with the Q-tip, since money is tight? 

I disagree am afraid - always one of caution me tho! The OP said that the cotton bud was 'somewhat inside' and 'deep clean'  giving me the impression that it was quite deep inside the ear. Any vet advice I have ever had was to only use a bud to get into the folds at the top of the ear and never to insert a cotton bud into the ear itself.  I was told it's dangerous and it can impact the ear by pushing more rubbish back down.

http://www.vetmed.wsu.edu/cliented/cat_ears.aspx

Well, I was really just showing the diagram that she probably didn't puncture the eardrum with the qtip like can happen with a human

But  you are correct in that one should clean using gauze or something vs qtips

I don't want to appear argumentative but again, I think it is easily possible to harm the eardrum with a q-tip.  They are quite bendy and if shoved too far it I do think it's possible. Been looking a lot online too and there are many sites that say this is a danger to the eardrum.

I really do not want to offend, but I also want the OP to see that she may have caused some damage and a trip to the vet to make sure kitty is ok I think is safer and kinder for kitty. Damage down there would be very painful and although there is an angle to a cats ear canal, I don't want either of us to come over as experts and perhaps leave the cat in pain. To be cautious I think is the way. Again, sorry to offend, but caring for a cat is more important to me than perhaps upsetting you!!

It's never a good idea to stick a qtip down a pets ears, as you have seen they can shake their ears and it can cause damage.  If you are concerned about your cat take it to the vet.  In the future, my vet told me to take a baby wipe wrapped around my finger to clean my cats ears when they get dirty.  A vet can do a more thorough job of cleaning the ears for you.

Fleabags Mom said:

 Again, sorry to offend, but caring for a cat is more important to me than perhaps upsetting you!!

Click to expand...

No offense taken.  I totally agree that it's all about the cats here  .

So...wonder what ever happened to the original poster and what she ended up doing?