Any idea what is wrong with Bobs' ear?

Bob is an outdoor cat that comes to eat around 6 each evening. Last Friday his ear was flopped over - it seemed to bother him, but not so much now, but it seems to be getting worse, more limp and a little shrivled up. I know he needs to see a vet but he is only here at night. Has anyone seen anything like this, any idea what is wrong?

Before

Now

Are there any visible sores or bite marks on it?

Our rex had that. We thought he got bit from a spider or something - his ear swelled up terribly. We took him to the vet and had it drained. There was no bite marks or anything. It didn't work and the vet wound up cutting off the flow of blood (which was making it swell) and his one ear is permanently shriveled up. Once the blood leaves the ears, they "collapse".

We never did figure out what happened. We think he was sleeping and fell off the back of the dresser and hit his head on the edge of the window sill.

There appears to be no open wound - I have no idea what could be wrong

The ears are so thin that it's easy for a little bump to disrupt the blood flow. I've had a cat with the "swelled up" ear, and it did have to be drained, and then a little stitch or button put there to keep the layers of the ear together or it puffs up like a puff pastry. You might want to at least give the vet a call - they can tell you what to do about the "collapsed" ear. Most likely with the blood flow gone, it won't come back, sort of like frostbite, but you do want to find out how to keep it from getting worse. Hope that helps!

P.S. Bob is very cute!

When you say a swelled up ear - do you mean the thin part? The thin part hasn't appeared to be swollen - there may be a little swelling at the base of the ear

On Spooky the swelling was at the bottom of the ear where the blood couldn't go anywhere - looked like it would burst any min. We rushed him to the vet.

Ear didn't seem to bother him tho - that was the weird part.