Concerned about his ears

Hi I wanted to post here about concerns I have been having regarding my cat's ears.

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My cat is 14 ( I think they said  last time I went to the vet) and has never had any health problems up until recently. It started late December/early February when I noticed he was scratching at his ears and shaking his head alot. Now being that I am not the main money earner in the house and it would be up to my parents to have to pay for the bill they weren't really eager to take him to the vet at first. However as I noticed that it was getting worse and he was doing those things more frequently I finally was able to get my parents to take him. When we went there they did a swab in his ears and found that they were a little bit yeasty. I do not recall them doing an actual inner ear exam which is what worries me. They gave me some ear drops to use on his ears and sent us home.

Now I will admit I probably should have used them for the full 14 weeks however when he started to stop scratching at his ears I thought maybe it was alright to stop. A week went by and suddenly it started up again. When I used the drops again I was met with a loud cry from him. My mom said that it was probably just because they were cold. Now a few more weeks have passed and i've noticed his previous symptoms have returned. He also has some balding on his ears but i think that's just from scratching since he doesn't have mites.

He seems to be very uncomfortable when I pet behind his ears and sometimes he will cry out like it's hurting him. Other days he doesn't even make a peep. I can't tell if he is really in bad shape or not. However what makes me more concerned was that maybe a week ago when he was scratching at his ears I noticed a big piece of wax coming out of the area I have circled in the picture below ( he isn't a sphynx cat. I just used that

picture because it's the best one i could find where it showed the area of his ear i was talking about.)


It was far enough out of his ear that i was able to remove the rest of it with a tissue and not have to put my fingers in his ear ( since i know that can do a lot of damage ) 

What I noticed about the wax was that it was very hard and I am wondering if there is more in his ear that is causing him to have pain. I haven't seen any more wax coming out but he still is scratching at his ears ( though not as much ).  Should I take him to the vet or should I wait a bit more because we cannot really afford to another vet visit unless absolutely necessary.

Call your local animal shelter and ask about low cost vet clinics that could look at your cat's ears. Make sure you mention the ears, because you don't want them to send you to a spay/neuter only clinic. My area has several vets that will provide low cost services to people in need. 

Once you find a place that can help, I would take him in because it sounds like the pain is getting worse, not better. Yes, you should have used the otic drops for 14 days, but it's entirely possible something else is going on in there. The big wad of wax concerns me because healthy ears do not produce that much wax, some yes, but not a big wad. You might consider asking about some preventative steps you can take too, that will save you from future vet visits. With Fuzz, I got lucky because we relocated to another state that rarely has flea outbreaks, he was horribly allergic to fleas. You will probably not need to do something as drastic, but if it's a yeast issue, I can almost guarantee that you are feeding him a food that has way more carbs than his system can handle. Is it possible that you are feeding him a dry food that has potatoes, or corn? 

If so, find yourself a wet food that is low carb that your parents will agree to on their budget. Head to the grocery store. Read the labels. There are grocery store canned foods that do not have any grains or starches in them that should do the job. Replace as much of his dry food with the wet food as you can. It should reduce the amount of yeast in his system. Yeast feeds on sugars in the body. Carbs provide those sugars. So if you reduce the amount of sugars in the body, even just a bit, his system should be able to handle the yeast on its own. I still think you will need to treat them though, to deal with the boost in yeast population. The food suggestions are more for maintenance, once you have the yeast issue under control. 

Here's another thread about a yeast infection with lots of ear wax, so I'm not sure it's anything that unusual, but I DO think you  need to use those drops AS INSTRUCTED to try to nip this in the bud.  Here's the thread:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/268851/ear-infection-and-lots-of-wax-that-just-wont-go-away

And I wholeheartedly agree that the cause of the issue could be from food, as is also discussed in the above thread. 

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
Here's another thread about a yeast infection with lots of ear wax, so I'm not sure it's anything that unusual, but I DO think you  need to use those drops AS INSTRUCTED to try to nip this in the bud.  Here's the thread:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/268851/ear-infection-and-lots-of-wax-that-just-wont-go-away

And I wholeheartedly agree that the cause of the issue could be from food, as is also discussed in the above thread. 

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My cat doesn't eat much dry food. He eats fancy feast and has  quarter of the can twice a day. He does have access to friskies dry food though. However he's never had this problem before and we had been feeding him this stuff for a long time. If it were allergies wouldn't it have shown up earlier. So should I start the ear drops up once again then? I am worried because he cried the last time I did it and I read that if it isn't a yeast problem then the drops could actually make it worst.

Hrm... you might be over-reacting a bit, that actually doesn't seem like a ton of wax to me. I would try to remove his access to the Friskies if you can though, because I'd bet he's eating more of it than you think. I don't feel that yeast issues are caused by allergies, but by a dietary abundance of carbohydrates. I've seen it happen in my dogs over the years, I can always attribute it to corn or potatoes in the food, because once I remove that food, no more ear infections. 

So we took him to the vet today and it turns out that he had a wax plug in his right ear pressing against his eardrum. They gave us something to use on his ear to soften the wax up so it will come out. I'm so glad I went and got a second opinion especially since I know that if it wasn't treated it could have ruptured his eardrum.

Glad to hear it! I bet your kitty is glad too.