How do you clean your kitties ears?

[ligwa]

My Tess seems to always be having ear issues. Ever since we got her there has been one problem after another with her ears. The first month we had her we thought she was deaf. So did the vet. Turned out she had mites so bad it affected her hearing. Her ears are always, always dirty. I got some stuff from the vet that says to just put into the ear. It doesn't do the trick with removing the junk out though. Does anyone ever use a Q-tip or something to clean your kitties' ears out? My girl is starting to dig at her one ear again. I would like to try to get to it so we can avoid an expensive vet visit just because of dirt.

I wonder why some cats have such dirty ears and others not. My other kitty never has this problem. ??

 

[aprilyim]

Here's a good video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQVeS...1&feature=fvwp

And another link:
http://cats.about.com/cs/earshearing/ht/cleanears.htm

I've read that you don't want to shove a q-tip in a cat's ear.
I use cotton balls pieces to clean the insides.
You can safely use a q-tip to clean the outer parts where you can see though.

Good luck!

 

[ligwa]

Thank you!!
Tonight's the night.

 

[aprilyim]

Good luck!

 

[auntie crazy]

I have never cleaned inside any of my cat's ears; never heard of it being a regular necessity, in fact.

The closest I've come to what you're describing is my mother's dog's ears. The poor thing had ear infections constantly and was medicated pretty much nonstop for about a year and a half. The vet kept telling my mom she'd have to deal with this for the dog's whole life. However, after she took Mickey off one of the worst kibbles on the market and put him on a grain-free Natural Balance canned diet, the ear infections cleared right up.

I'm not saying your cat's condition is caused by food, just throwing out the thought of it's possibility (especially if your cat is eating anything with corn in it). Or perhaps the vet has missed something? Maybe a second opinion would be helpful?

Good luck to you both! I hope you can figure out and completely address this very soon; I know it's not comfortable for either of you.

AC

 

[ligwa]

I do have Tess on grain free food. The vet said some cats just accumulate a lot of dirt in their ears. I had another girl kitty who's ears would get very dirty, and then there's Jasper, who's ears I've never touched. Idk why one would be a problem and not another. Tess does have the feline herpes virus so maybe that has something to do with it. Seems like whenever she has a flair her ears bother her. I have her on l-lysine right now.

I made an appointment for her for the end of the week. Just in case the ear is still bugging her.