Ear Infection

I am newly a cat mom, adopted Charlie 1 month ago. He is an almost 3 year old male mix (tux tabby). My husband and I brought him to our local vet for a first time check up and registration and found out he had a yeast based outer ear infection. By some miracle we have been able to get drops in and do the ear pump to get the medicine to circulate 2x a day for almost 2 weeks. We have a follow up in a few days, but I am concerned it isn't healing. He doesn't scratch his ears at all, but I still see gunk in there when he lets me look. Not sure if this is normal or not, as this is my first time having a cat on my own (was raised with them since birth). He seems to be fine, but I know cats can be hard to tell if sick.

I understand that some ear infections are cased by an allergic reaction. Since you're treating the yeast infection, but it doesn't seem to be getting better, perhaps that's Charlie's problem.

Are you still feeding him the same food that the shelter used? If so, you may want to switch to some other food to see if that helps. Oddly enough, many cats are allergic to fish, so aim for something that doesn't contain fish. That may help a bit.

Good luck with Charlie!

Best regards.

PHarber-Murphy said:

I understand that some ear infections are cased by an allergic reaction. Since you're treating the yeast infection, but it doesn't seem to be getting better, perhaps that's Charlie's problem.

Are you still feeding him the same food that the shelter used? If so, you may want to switch to some other food to see if that helps. Oddly enough, many cats are allergic to fish, so aim for something that doesn't contain fish. That may help a bit.

Good luck with Charlie!

Best regards.

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We actually bypassed the shelter and took him from a good friends friend. Her female cats were ganging up on him and attacking him. She had him on the science diet for 1 year prior and we continued feeding him that. Open to suggestions for better food options though. Thank you!

I personally don't like the Science diet, but that's just me. My picky eater Mr. Grimsby liked Fancy Feast, although many folks consider it junk food. My best advice for what to feed Charlie would be to read the labels. Choose one that sounds good to you (bearing in mind that cats are obligate carnivores, so anything with a lot of fruits and vegetables is a waste of product). And, most people feed only grain free, but some folks like to give their cats brown rice. I think it helps with sensitive stomachs.

I'm switching Albert from the Science kibble he was fed at the shelter to Natural Instinct frozen raw food. I've also got several cans of cat food I want to get through first, but once those are gone, I think I'll go raw diet with him, with Blue Wilderness Healthy Aging kibble on the side. He is positively ravenous - he'll get through his raw food, half of a 3 ounce can of wet food, and most of a bowl of kibble before noon. But he's a growing boy - just over a year old. Eventually, I'll have to cut back on his food or he'll get fat, but right now he seems to run most of it off ;-)

Good luck with Charlie. You'll be a good cat mom!

Best regards.

Oh, I guess I should have mentioned that the bowls get refilled around 5:00 p.m. He doesn't go hungry the rest of the day (nor does Bertha who has lost almost one pound in the past six weeks - hurrah!)

Best regards.

I would ask the vet about it at his recheck. He may just need a really good ear cleaning to get the rest of the gunk out. The vet should be able to clean them for you.

Yeast infections in the ears can be difficult to get rid of.  I had a cat who used to get them regularly until we started getting her ears flushed out annually.  When she got her dental every year, the vet would also clean her ears out thoroughly while she was sedated.  He would then put BNT ear ointment in her ears to help with any infection and irritation.  The ointment is a bit messy, but it's applied once and then absorbed into the deep recesses of the ear canal and wipes out the yeast. 

As far as food, I would work to switch him to a grain-free food, preferably canned with dry supplemented.  Canned food is actually so much better for kitties.  There are many good ones out on the market.  The original Fancy Feast varieties are actually grain free.