One of my biggest pet peeves about vets is when they don't explain things!
While I'm sure that your vet recognized the reason for the change in the color of your cat's ears, I think they should have explained the reason. Whether the cause be from melanosis, lentigo or something else, the vet should have just said so.
Our vet is really good about explaining things. When we first adopted our cat, Casper, we took him to the vet for his first visit and we asked about the black "goobers" he was getting in the corners of his eyes. They turned out to be nothing. Any other vet might have said just that. "Oh, it's nothing..."
Our vet explained that when a cat's tears collect in the tear ducts at the corner of the eyes, exposure to air and sunlight makes them turn black. She said that, because Casper is an all-white cat, it's more noticeable. It made sense to me because I've never had white cat, before. Further, she said that, if Casper will tolerate it, we could use a wet cloth to wipe his eyes to remove his "eye boogers."
This whole conversation took, maybe, ninety seconds! Quick, simple and informative. Nothing more, nothing less. But, that ninety seconds is one of the main reasons why we go back to that vet. Whenever we go there, we get answers. If our cat has an issue, it is explained. We know what the problem is. We know the cause. We know the treatment, the expected outcome and we have a reasonable estimate on the cost. If we have to give our cat any medicine, we know what it is, why it's given, how it works and how to use it, before we leave the clinic.
When you asked about your cat's ears, he could have said something like, "It's something called 'lentigo' which is common in ginger cats when they get older. As long as you don't see any bleeding, sings of infection or other problems, it's mostly normal and there's nothing to worry about."
How long would it take a person to speak those two sentences? Fifteen seconds? Twenty max!
The next time you talk to your vet, I think you should tell them that they need to start explaining things better or else you're going to find a new vet who will.
Our current vet is not the first vet we took Casper to see. The first place was the same vet that my family took all of our pets to seesince I was a little kid. Well, the original guy who started the practice retired and turned it over to his son but, when he retired the business got sold to some kind of partnership. When we took Casper there, the place was nothing like it was, back in the day.
The place had been redecorated with fancy furniture and pictures of dogs and cats on the walls. All the receptionists sweet talked everybody but didn't really say anything meaningful. All the doctors and employees always fawned over people's pets and pretended to be all "nicey-nice."
One of the things we took Casper to the vet for was to have a microchip implanted. While the vet was getting everything ready, I asked a question: "Is this an ISO Standard microchip?" I literally got the brush-off!
There are a few different standards for microchips and not all microchip scanners can detect all the different types of microchip if they aren't ISO compliant. If your pet doesn't have an ISO compliant microchip, there is a chance that, even though your pet has been chipped, an animal shelter or vet won't detect it because it's not compatible with the scanner they use.
That would be a bad thing! Don't you think? My cat gets lost but nobody knows who his owner is because he was implanted with a non-compliant chip!
All it takes to prevent that from happening is to ask one simple question! All they would have had to say is, "Yes."
(BTW: The chip was ISO compliant. I looked it up when I got home.)
Anyhow, we finished the procedure and I paid the bill. I took my cat, turned on my heels and never went back.
The vet we take Casper and Elliot to, now, is a million times better!
When we took him there for his first visit, our vet told us that she used to have an all-white cat that looked just like Casper!
I'm pretty certain that we got the right vet, this time!
Caspers Human
you're responding to a five year old post here. The thread has been recently revived. 
ChusMom
yes, please do let us know. And welcome to TCS!
