Cat doesn't have good balance

I adopted an older stray cat about 8 weeks ago.  He was very sick with a systemic infection, which cleared right up after antibiotics.  He had a bad case of mites in his ears, so my vet treated his ears.  Almost 2 weeks ago, he was sneezing and slinging his head and scratching his ears, so we went back to the vet.  She said he had a respiratory issue, and she could see dead mites in his ears.  She gave him an antibiotic shot and put something in his ears and sent us home with Amoxicillin.  She asked me to bring him back to check the respiratory issue in a week.  He was doing great - no sneezing, still scratching his ears, but he was playing, eating very well and you could tell he felt good.  So Monday we went back to the vet.  Lungs are clear, but because he was still scratching ears,  the vet put drops in his ears and squished them around, then put a cream in.  By that evening, when he would try to sling his head, he would fall over.  He has walked into a box, and sometimes walked a crooked path when he goes across the room.  He doesn't act like he hurts, but he just seems like something is not right.  He wobbles a little sometimes and is really skittish.  I'm just wondering if this is an ear issue or if something else is going on.  I'm hesitant to take him back to the vet because it really stresses him out.  He was living on his own outdoors as a sort of neighborhood stray before I got him, and it took me several weeks to get him semi-comfortable with being in the house and being handled.  We were doing really good until Monday.  I am pretty worried about him.  Any suggestions?

Maybe a more experienced person will chime in here.....but I would call his vet immediately.  My poor old guy has had an ear treatment in the past that caused him to do the very same thing, but they told me it was because they had to flush his ears first and it threw his equilibrium off.  He cleared up in a day.  It scared me to death, he was walking like a drunk or me when I had vertigo. I had that phone in my hand in a flash when I saw him doing this.

I would definitely call and ask to speak to at least a vet tech, if they won't let you speak to the vet, and ask if it is the result of the treatment they did, or if it is a sign of something else.  Could be the drops and the cream are doing it, or could be a reaction....I'm no expert, but I would definitely seek the advise of the treating office.

Thank you for rescuing an older kitty!!  Senior cats are awesome!!

Welcome to the TCS forum.  Thanks for rescuing this furry guy who was living as a stray.  It sounds like he could have a middle or inner ear infection. Here's some additional help about ear mites in cats: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/Health_Information/earmites.cfm  

If you like your vet and trust her then I would call as soon as possible.  However, if not, don't hesitate to get a second opinion.  Please keep us posted and give an update.  Good luck!

Despite your reservations, yes, he should be seen again - while this could be an inner ear infection that may be causing balancing problems, it could be something else entirely  - whenever there is stumbling, staggering, unsteadiness, falling over etc, you should always get kitty to a vet promptly.

Ask the vet if she truly "flushed" the ear canals and if the medications used also help with inflammation - ask her to double-check to ensure his eardrum is intact and there is no debris buildup in the ear canal. Lastly, ask her if the medications used might have caused a bad reaction/side effect. He truly needs evaluated to ensure nothing else is going on.

How is he doing now? Has his balance improved at all in the day since you posted this?

Well we took Sammy cat back to the vet this morning, and the vet said this is not unusual.  He had a very bad case of ear mites and an ear infection (as well as a systemic infection)  when I rescued him and had probably never had vet care.  My vet said he would have been dead in a day or two had he not gotten to a vet.  Anyway - he looked inside his ears, and let my husband look and the ears canals were clear.  But the doc said some of the infection had moved into his inner ear which is not uncommon in cases like his.  So he put steroid drops in his ears and gave him an oral steroid along with an antibiotic injection.  He expects improvement to start probably tomorrow and continue - he didn't see any other issues.  He went ahead and checked blood sugar while he was there (we had already checked just about everything else at the first visit) and his levels were near perfect.  So other than this ear thing he appears to be in good health.  We are to take him back Saturday just to double check him.  Thank you all for your comments and support.  I had just stumbled across this site and joined yesterday, but I am sure I will be a regular!  I now have 3 cats and have had kitties living with me all my life - we all know that none of us "own" our cats!  Again - thanks for the support!!

I am so happy to hear this!  Hoping Sammy improves minute by minute now.  I'm so happy Sammy has a fantastic home!  I have such a soft spot for the older kitties and strays.

Catwings said:

We are to take him back Saturday just to double check him.  

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So happy to hear this, I'm glad the vet wants to do a double check on Sammy.  Glad you found this forum.  Hope to see you around.

I have a good old girl who developed the same symptoms. Long story short, after $800.00 in vet bills, many appts and loads of meds, the vet finally decided to have a bacterial culture done from my girly's ears, then once they knew exactly what germ they were dealing with,  an appropriate antibiotic cleared it up pronto. But...because it took so LONG to find the culprit, she has a permanent head tilt.