Chronic ear infections, deformed ear canals and now steroids. Thoughts?

Peter Parker is a 2.5 year old domestic shorthair who was rescued from a feral colony at 10 months of age.  I got him shortly thereafter and he has been with me ever since.  He is friendly and sweet and you would never know he ever spent any time on the street.  He's very attached to me.

One week after I got him, I noticed a series of very strange sneezing fits and immediately took him to vet #1.  Vet#1 checked him for upper respiratory and found no signs of it but did find inflammation that was indicative of an environmental allergy.  He was diagnosed with a dust allergy and put on a course of amitryptelene until I could get a HEPA vacuum and clean all the dust.  While we were there, Vet#1 found a rather severe ear infection in his right ear.  Peter was tested for mites and none were found.  He was started on a daily wash with Virbac Epi-Otic and twice daily mometamax for ten days.  The ear infection was determined to be gone at this time and I was told to wash his ear twice weekly with the Epi-Otic.  I did so.

Approximately 6 weeks later, with the dust cleaned up, I noticed build up and discharge in his ear and took him back to the vet.  The vet confirmed an ear infection and we repeated the Virback-mometamax combination, with great effect.  The cycle repeated over and over and, after a culture showed no resistant microbes, the vet said he thought Peter had a polyp.  I was unable to afford exploratory surgery and Peter would not allow a good look with the otoscope without sedation.  I had some personal issues and we moved and I continued the cycle of finding the infections and just treating them at home rather than going back to the vet, as I still could not afford surgery.  During this time I tried several elimination diets, for twelve weeks each, in case it was a food allergy.  Nothing improved his ear.

Finally, these past couple of weeks, the virbac-mometamax combination has done nothing to treat his latest infection.  I took him to vet#2 today.  Vet#2 discussed food allergies, ruled it out with the elimination diets I had done.  She checked for mites and found none, even under a microscope.  She then managed to get the otoscope in and get a very good look without sedation.  While he has only ever had an ear infection on the right side, she discovered that both ear canals are malformed and misshapen.  She suspects, due to the fact that his left ear has never had an issue that could cause scar tissue to build up, that this is a birth defect.  Combined with his environmental allergies, it is causing the infections.  

She decided to change up the ear rinse to malacetic in case he's allergic to the virbac or mometamax.  She's put him on 5mg of oral prednisone daily.  I am to rinse his ear daily and give him the prednisone for 14 days, then we will have a recheck.  She's doing a consultation with a dermatologist to find possible long term solutions.  

Has anyone ever experienced this?  I want the ear infections to stop.  He's uncomfortable and in pain and his ear gets so itchy and horrible.  Thank you for any help anyone can give him!

I can't be much help unfortunately, I have only dealt with this when it was a food allergy.  Hopefully someone will be able to offer some advise.  I know some people here have had their kitties ears flushed out under anesthesia but this sounds like a deformity within the ear that is causing this.

Yeah, it's DEFINITELY a deformity causing the issue, she says.  She says his ear canal isn't even what she'd call narrow.  The only word she could come up with was 'convoluted'.  It wiggles at weird angles, I guess, and the walls are all weird shaped, but not in a way that suggests a tumour, polyp or growth.

Combined with the allergies, the only thing she could offer was a new ear cleaner and steroids and that she's going to consult with a dermatologist for other options to decrease the inflammation so that the infections will stop for him.

I hope she can find something other than the steroids.  He's miserable.  Dull-eyed, sleepy.  He's not playing or running around like he always does.  He's just sleeping, getting up to eat and drink, sleeping, going to the litter pan, sleeping, going to get another drink.  Rinse, repeat.  His buddy, my flatmate's cat, bounded over to Peter earlier and pounced him and bit him on the butt (this is how they both try to get the other to play...) and Peter just rolled over.  His buddy gave him a full bath and Peter barely moved.  Peter is usually a very high energy cat who likes to run around at full tilt like a little maniac and chases invisible fluff all the time.  

Today was the recheck and Peter's ear is significantly better, but not all the way there.  We've got another two weeks of the malacetic daily and we're lowering his prednisone to 2.5 mg daily, then tapering him off of it in two weeks' time.

Unfortunately there's nothing more that the vet has been able to uncover to do for him.  At this point it looks like he's going to be on and off steroids for the rest of his life.