Something seriously wrong with my cats ears

My 14 year old cat who always had ear issues now is in bad shape.

On top of constant ear wax buildup and growths in the ear, she has been scratching the growths so much her ear has been bleeding for a month straight and wounds inside and out of her ear so bad I don't know if they are new growths or abscesses. Her ear is leaking and smells like diarrhea and she can't even lay her head on that side and sleeps all day.

She is going into the vet in a few days but the vet seems to be the issue. Last time they cleaned her ears and cauterized the growth she scratches and said she will be fine. Nobody knows what these growths are but clearly they cause her pain. The vet said there is surgery to remove them but my cat isn't the type to allow the big collar, she is part feral. I can't get any drops or ointment in her ears if there is infection or if she had surgery.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do when she's at the vet? They can clean and cauterize but it's clear this will happen again! I don't have a game plan and it scares me for my cats quality of life.

I thought what if I board her so the vets can give her the treatment she needs but every time she was boarded the vets said she refused to eat anything or use the litterbox, she doesn't do well out of my house, when I leaves house she won't eat until I come home.

I don't know what to do for her anymore. [emoji]128546[/emoji]

Hi. Sorry I don't know much, just adopted my first kitty myself. But why don't you try going to a different vet? One that will look into the cause and not just focus on taking care of the symptoms.

Well, I have a couple of suggestions that might be helpful....not sure.

First, maybe if she gets the surgery on her ears, while she is "out", they can put "soft claws" on her so when she tries to scratch at her ears, she won't actually do much damage.  These are soft claws:  http://www.thecatsite.com/products/soft-claws-soft-paws-for-cats

Second:  perhaps there is a Vet Tech in your neighborhood who would be willing to come to your house to do the necessary ear drops and whatever else needs doing for aftercare (for a fee).  If there isn't one that works at the particular Vet's office where you take her, try calling around to other Vet offices.  You never know.  We actually found someone who lives less than 1/2 mile away who does sub-q fluids for us when we go out of town.  Works great. 

Last but not least, talk seriously to your Vet, and explain that you can't get ear drops in her ears and see if they can give you some  pointers.  Maybe they can show you a way to do it that's easy, or possibly easy if you could have a friend help or something.

I brought her in today.

Her ear was filled with disgusting pus so clearly a bad ear infection.

The vet gave an antibiotic shot and prescribed ear drops, but of course not being able to give drops is a problem. Having someone come to apply drops won't work if she hides here.

For the severity I decided to try and board her for 7 days so the vets can give the drops. I am going to check on her Monday because if she refuses to eat I'll have no choice but to bring her home and bring her in daily for drops, that's last resort but I'll have to weigh options.

However my worries haven't gone. I tried explaining to the vet why I think she developed the infection in the first place.
I believe the tumor growing in her ear is causing discomfort, she scratches it and blood drips because I see it, the blood drips in her ear and settles thus causing bacteria and the ear infection. The vet was kind of disagreeing saying the tumor isn't scratched it can't cause infection I guess she wasn't listening when I said blood dripping could stay in the ear and cause this.

So for now priority is clearing up her infection. After that what I need to think about is that tumor which grew. If she still scratches it causing more blood I'm assuming it is bothering her and surgery might be a real possibility to remove it.

The problem is it's right near her ear canal in a tricky spot that a specialist would have to do it and the vet said half her ear would be cut off [emoji]128549[/emoji] For a cat prone to ear infections an unprotected ear, won't that make her get more ear infections? I asked if after surgery any drops need to be applied she said no, so I assume there won't be any scratching issues I thought.

The vet said as long as the tumor isn't blocking anything it could stay, but being it grew waiting might be a risk, the bigger it gets the more ear has to be removed, AND the unknown if it's cancer or not....

I guess the real question is, would she still be prone to infections if that growth weren't there?