Possible stroke or ear infection

I was getting ready to leave for work and couldn't find my cat. He always gets ready with me so I found it odd. He's been deaf for about a year now so calling him is no use. He final came out of hiding and just collapsed, he tried to get up but kept collapsing. I called into work and took him right to a vet. They ran blood work and everything came back fine. He seemed to have an infection in the ear but no clue as to if it had reached the inner ear, the vet also said it might have been a stroke. I was given ear drops and motion sickness pills for him. He didn't eat for a day and then I switched him to those fancy feast broths and he started to eat those and some dry food but not his normal intake. It's been about a week and he walks but wobbles and sometimes falls. He is his normal self otherwise but after sleeping on one side for too long if he tries to get up he falls constany and his head falls to one side for about 15 minutes after waking. He is a 16 yr old indoor cat who was a rescue and seems to be a mix between a Siamese and maincoon.

If anyone has any idea on what this is or what steps I should take next would be appreciated, the vet said at his age it isn't worth going to a speciality doctor because he is just too old and if he doesn't get better that I should put him down but I refuse until I know I've done everything I could to try and help him.

Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully give insight on my Issue.

Hi, hope kitty us doing ok. Yea, we had an old half Siamese who had the same thing at age 15, too. This was about 20 years ago. We were toldSiamese are prone to some kind of ear polyp--don't know if that still considered true, but we were told it was some kind of infection that caused a mini stroke. He recovered ok in time but not to 100%. We were told its quite common. Hope your cat recovers. What a shock it is to see your elder kitty so ill.

Yes your cat is elderly but he's not lurching over the Rainbow Bridge quite yet. Get a consultation with a different veterinarian. If he's otherwise healthy - no kidney trouble etc - he could have another few years for the two of you to enjoy each other's company.