Streptococcus Ear Infection

Has anyone dealt with a pesky streptococcus ear infection when it comes to their kitty? Any good (natural or over the counter) remedies? Has anyone used olive oil? I don't want to take him back to the vet because he's already very stressed from being taken to the vet way too much because of an eye infection ... he's been having this infection in the ear for a while, and last time we visited vet for the eye problem they took a culture from the ear to check, sent it to a lab and came out as a strep infection, or so we were told. Any suggestions? Thank you!

I think all cats are stressed to go to the vet i know mine are and i hate to take them as well. However an ear infection is not something i would try to treat at home, i would definitely take him to the vet. Especially it has been going on a while. He may need a strong dose of antibiotics, or at least ear drops. They need to figure out why he keeps having these infections.

I am a human doctor, not a vet, but treatment of streptococcal infections are similar in humans and felines. There are no "natural" nor "over the counter" remedies for feline streptococcal infections; they should be treated by antibiotics on prescription by a veterinarian who has examined the cat.

Agreed that a visit to the vet may well be traumatic, but the alternative, failure to treat or treatment by quack remedies, can well be even more traumatic.
Geoffrey

Thank you both, I definitely agree with you, however...I’m uneasy taking him in because I’ve had very bad luck with finding someone who can actually prescribe something that works. The vet who saw my cat last August for ear infection (basically wax-like brownish build up and some yellowish discharge that makes him paw at his ear) prescribed him tresaderm, he didn’t perform any tests, he just looked at his ears and said it’s a chronic ear infection. Tresaderm helped keep it under control but did not get rid of it. Any time we’d stop for a day-two the condition would reoccur. We did follow the vet’s direction for the treatment. When the first dose of tresaderm was done, I called the vet and told him that it’s not curing the condition, and his response was that we might just need to keep my cat on that medication, I asked if there’s something better and he said no. I’ve used tresaderm on him until a month ago (so from August until beginning of January, with some days off to give him a break) when we started battling his eye infection. I’m also afraid that putting all these antibiotics in him is weakening his immune system. I’m not a doctor, but I’m reading a lot about this, and I just can’t imagine that having a poor animal on a constant antibiotic is normal... Thoughts?

The vet that told me it’s a streptococcus bacterial infection infection is the second vet I took him to about three weeks ago.

Did the second vet prescribe anything for the ear? The problem is, especially if his immune system is weak, he will need antibiotics to get over something like this. He may need it longer term, don't know about forever. But i still recommend to see the vet, or a different vet. He needs help to get over this. Not what you wanted to hear, i know, but what i think.

sometimes people have a resistant infection, and long term antibiotics are needed, i would guess same with a cat.

Best of luck to you.

I was wondering what the second vet prescribed too. It would be strange if he told you it was strep then didn't offer anything to combat it.

The second vet said I need to bring him in to see him again before prescribing... And, I was just trying to avoid the visit, since my furbaby hates it so much.

Thanks, all, I appreciate your answers, just a bit frustrated with all the back and forth with these vets and the fact that nothing has really worked for ear or eye so far.

I totally understand your desire to not subject your cat to another vet visit. My two get so stressed out, and they're both ill that I worry the stress will actually contribute to them getting worse.

I hope you can get some answers soon for what exactly is going on and get prescribed something that actually works.

Thank you, pushylady, that seems to be the case here too, the stress from the vet visits seems to always get him worse. Hope your kitties are doing better.

Just in case you didn't know - strep infection can be passed back and forth between you and your cat (and other mammalian pets - it's a bacteria, so is infectious across different species) so it might be worth seeing your own doctor and maybe getting whatever diagnostic test is appropriate done, just to make sure you aren't re-infecting one another over and over.

Rox_tobs said:

... Tresaderm helped keep it under control but did not get rid of it. Any time we’d stop for a day-two the condition would reoccur. We did follow the vet’s direction for the treatment. When the first dose of tresaderm was done, I called the vet and told him that it’s not curing the condition, and his response was that we might just need to keep my cat on that medication, I asked if there’s something better and he said no. I’ve used tresaderm on him until a month ago (so from August until beginning of January, with some days off to give him a break) when we started battling his eye infection. I’m also afraid that putting all these antibiotics in him is weakening his immune system. I’m not a doctor, but I’m reading a lot about this, and I just can’t imagine that having a poor animal on a constant antibiotic is normal... Thoughts?

The vet that told me it’s a streptococcus bacterial infection infection is the second vet I took him to about three weeks ago.

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Rox_tobs said:

The second vet said I need to bring him in to see him again before prescribing... And, I was just trying to avoid the visit, since my furbaby hates it so much.

Click to expand...

Rox_tobs said:

.., just a bit frustrated with all the back and forth with these vets and the fact that nothing has really worked for ear or eye so far.

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I've been trying to read your other posts to catch up on what you've talked about regarding your kitty's issues.


I would be worried and frustrated, too, that your poor kitty Toby is still having serious problems with his eyes and ears! How long has he had problems with his ears? Does this stretch back even farther than last August for his ears? This is a very long time to have an ear infection.

The thing is, what could be going on in your kitty's ears may not just be one single thing. For example, bacterial infections can thrive alongside fungal infections, and it could even be more complex than that if the infection has been chronic for a long time -- the middle and inner ear could be having more serious issues, too. (Did you say your kitty was 10 years old? He is moving into his senior years, and the vet will take all this into consideration.)

It could be tresaderm just wasn't the right med to tackle what was going on. You also want to make sure you have been giving the tresaderm in the right manner, and also, keeping it out of the cat's eyes. (Sometimes when giving ear meds, the cat can struggle and it's hard to keep things out of the cat's eyes... I've been there, done that!) But again, it could be that the tresaderm is also not addressing the specific bacteria or fungus (if one exists).

This is why the second vet would like to see him again, just to make sure, if possible (depends on how much you want to and are able to work on this with the vet).

I know it's tempting to just throw up your hands at all vets, and I know that whether or not you return to any vet to treat your cat is your own decision. I can understand wanting to resort to 'home remedies' for your cat's eyes and ears, but I guess I would encourage you to hang in there with the vets. Serious infections, in eyes and ears, are likely not treated with tea or olive oil... so you just don't want to be spinning your wheels on that if your kitty is continuing to suffer (this is my opinion). I am not a vet, not by a long shot, but I know that if I was in your position, I would just say (from reading your posts) that I myself would return to "vet #2". It was that vet who chose an ointment for your kitty's eyes, which seemed to help more than the drops from "vet #1", plus I actually think it's a good sign that the second vet had the ear(s) cultured to find out that one culprit could be a specific bacterial infection. Figuring out what antibiotic to use could really help!

I'm taking the time to write all of this in the hopes that you will try seeing a (good) vet again for your Toby.

My own kitty, when she was a kitten a few years ago, had a severe case of ear mites that took a few months to address, and later, her left ear developed a yeast infection that needed a different, more powerful med than our initial use of tresaderm. All of these things were specifically cultured by the vet to find out what was wrong. We subsequently tried a few meds to 'kill' the yeast infection. Sometimes these things just take some time to conquer, but not trying to conquer them directly could lead to serious issues for a kitty, not to mention pain and discomfort if left unaddressed! And sometimes, a cat or kitten can be allergic to one of the meds, and that can complicate things. If your cat's eyes, too, aren't getting better on a certain med, maybe the vet you choose to go to next can help with that. What you need to do, in my humble opinion, is not throw up your hands at all vets but try to go with the best vet you currently have at hand.