One Sided Face Paralysis. How long to Recover?

Hello, all!

This is my first post on this website. I found that the community here is pretty amazing and thought I would give it a shot to see if I could find some answers. My lovely cat Louise has been having some issues. She has always been a bit of a "problem child" when it comes to her health but she's still wonderful despite it. She has feline herpes to start with but that's being managed with Lysine powder. She also has a tendency to get ear infections in the past. And even now it turns out she has to have all her teeth pulled soon because of lesions in her mouth. It's been a hell of a year and a half! 

The main issue at hand right now is she has one sided face paralysis on her left side that prevents her from blinking very well if at all and not being able to react when her whiskers or ear is touched. She was diagnosed with facial paralysis about three weeks ago now. We were initially cleaning her ears with ear cleaning solution that the vet because of an ear infection. We initially cleaned them 2-3 days a week for two weeks at first and then once a week every week after that. But we started to notice her left third eyelid was showing a bit. After a day we took her in and found out she had the paralysis. Of course, the best part of all of this is the vet couldn't give a definitive answer to the cause. But their main feedback was it could either be a parasite called toxoplasma or because of the ear cleaning her ear became inflamed and cause the paralysis which they said is fairly common. 

So we've been giving her liquid tears in her eye four times a day ever since. A few days after we noticed she was pretty lethargic and not acting like herself. We took her in again and the vet was saying she might be nauseous if it is her ear causing her to have vertigo. They gave her a 24-hour anti-nausea shot and also tablets to take for  few days. She was immediately more like herself and she hasn't acted that way since which is good! They also took blood to test for the parasite and it turned out her "slightly" had it. Whatever that actually means. I suppose it wasn't very bad but it was still there. She is now taking clindamycin 2 times a day for a whole month! We took her in a week ago for her two-week checkup and they said she was getting some feeling back based on how she was reacting, she just can't actually react with that side of her face yet. 

We take her in again next week and i just keep getting so anxious. The vet isn't giving me any definitive answers in terms of diagnosis or recovery. It's all speculation and educational guessing. I understand why they don't want to tell me one thing and then for it to be another but it's very frustration and makes me more anxious not knowing what it truly is. They didn't want to give her anti-inflammatory in case she had to be on steroids for something at one point since they can't be taken at the same time so all she is taking is the clindamycin and liquid tears. The vet of course always tells me worst case scenarios and talked about taking her to a neurologist if it doesn't improve. She doesn't drool, her head doesn't tilt, and her eyelid doesn't droop. She just can't react when you touch that side of her face or blink really with that eye. So I feel deep down it's the ear and maybe a bit of the parasite (who know's though) but I just can't find anything anywhere about recovery time? 

I really just want to know if something taking 3+ weeks to recovery barely is normal? Has anyone else had a cat that has gotten through this? I really just want at least some answers since the vet isn't giving me any in this aspect. We also noticed tonight that when we touch her ear on that side the back of it twitches, which I guess is something!? I would super appreciate any feedback.

Thank you so much and sorry for the long post!

That sounds like quite an ordeal you're going through. I can't speak from experience of this, but to me her ear twitching seems like a good sign.
So you don't know why this occurred? The vet telling you after the fact that the ear cleaning could cause this makes me a little suspicious. He's certainly getting a lot out of you in terms of visits and meds. :slant:

I didn't know cats got this.  I had the human form of this called Bell's Palsy and 3 weeks isn't at all unusual for recovery.  Some people are left with some permanent residual deficits, I have several numb spots on that side of my face.  I have no idea if it is the same thing though.  They think that in humans it is caused by a virus swelling the facial nerve.  The facial nerve goes through a narrow bony channel before spreading across the face.  The nerve comes up against bone and this causes the paralysis.  Whether or not there is permanent damage or not depends on if the nerve is damaged or just the nerve covering.