Hi guys, I just signed up yesterday. So far, I'm amazed by the site and the super nice posters.
I looked around a little bit, and I didn't find anything about this particular issue. It's ear amputation.
Milo is my 9 year-old, male, neutered, DSH, grey tabby. He's a joy, and so affectionate (He howls and "talks" like a Siamese, lol). Milo is outside 65% of time in the summer, 35% of the time in the winter. I've tried to make him an indoor cat, but he is not happy inside. He has hung on windows until his weight opens them from the top (when I forget to lock them), and then he's been known to rip through screens to get out. I've come to accept that this is who he is, and I have to deal with the accompanying health risks that come with being outside.
One of those risks is constant ear mite infection. I've tried to keep up with that (as we usually have at least 3-5 other cats in our home, and I know that the mites are contageous). Between the mites and a few injuries, Milo's ears are a mess. They are a mass of scar tissue and they look rather squashed and deformed.
As a result, he gets some pretty ugly infections in his ears. Tiny scratches become abcessed, and the infections are becoming more stubborn and now usually require drainage and antibiotics. When this began about three years ago, I asked my vet about ear amputation. She was immediately defensive, saying that Milo would be vulnerable to all kinds of falling objects that would end up in his ears. OK. I accepted that. We've probably dealt with fifteen subsequent infections since that day three years ago. The last infection, about two weeks ago, could not be cured with Animax (which I have at home) and intense cleaning of the wounds. He also seemed to be hiding a lot, choosing to stay inside. He seemed to get sicker and sicker, hiding under the bed for twelve hours at a time until I could locate him and pull him out. I realized this one may be out of my league, and I called the vet on Wednesday morning and asked for an emergency appointment. Unfortunately, it was the doc's day off, so the best they could offer was first thing on Thursday. I took it.
By Wednesday night, I could no longer find Milo. But I went upstairs and followed the odor - yes, the infections get that bad.
When I pulled him out from under a bed, I had a sickening feeling that he was systemically ill. I put him in a cat carrier at 12:00 midnight, and drove to the emergency vet. That vet examined him, his temperature was about 103.7. He was given a morphine injection for pain, and some kind of sedative that put him out. Then they lanced the infection, drained it, and put him in a collar. They gave him an antibiotic injection, and gave me more antibiotics to take home.
The emergency vet wanted to know what definitive treatment my regular vet had proposed. I told him that she preferred to handle the infections as they arose. He said that Milo's ears are now structurally non-functional (although he can hear). Actually, he said that they are little more than a source of pain and dangerous infection. The infections will be a greater health risk as he continues to age. In a nutshell, he said that if Milo was his cat, he would amputate his ears. When I mentioned the objects falling into his ears without the protection of the ear structure, he made a good point. He said, "If something fell in there now, you'd never get to it". He also noticed a small, hard, dark, circular object inside the ear. I had noticed it too. I thought it was a tiny pebble that had gotten stuck under the skin during the healing process. The vet said that the body would have rejected a foreign object. He believes it is a melanoma (a cancer), and that would be another reason to strongly consider the amputation.
The only risk, he claims, in amputation is the bleeding involved as the ears are a highly vascular area. I can't stand seeing this cat deal with these horrendous infections, and I am leaning towards the amputation.
Is anyone familiar with this procedure. Results? Pros? Cons? Opinions? Thank you so much for taking the time to read this lengthy post.
I looked around a little bit, and I didn't find anything about this particular issue. It's ear amputation.
Milo is my 9 year-old, male, neutered, DSH, grey tabby. He's a joy, and so affectionate (He howls and "talks" like a Siamese, lol). Milo is outside 65% of time in the summer, 35% of the time in the winter. I've tried to make him an indoor cat, but he is not happy inside. He has hung on windows until his weight opens them from the top (when I forget to lock them), and then he's been known to rip through screens to get out. I've come to accept that this is who he is, and I have to deal with the accompanying health risks that come with being outside.
One of those risks is constant ear mite infection. I've tried to keep up with that (as we usually have at least 3-5 other cats in our home, and I know that the mites are contageous). Between the mites and a few injuries, Milo's ears are a mess. They are a mass of scar tissue and they look rather squashed and deformed.
As a result, he gets some pretty ugly infections in his ears. Tiny scratches become abcessed, and the infections are becoming more stubborn and now usually require drainage and antibiotics. When this began about three years ago, I asked my vet about ear amputation. She was immediately defensive, saying that Milo would be vulnerable to all kinds of falling objects that would end up in his ears. OK. I accepted that. We've probably dealt with fifteen subsequent infections since that day three years ago. The last infection, about two weeks ago, could not be cured with Animax (which I have at home) and intense cleaning of the wounds. He also seemed to be hiding a lot, choosing to stay inside. He seemed to get sicker and sicker, hiding under the bed for twelve hours at a time until I could locate him and pull him out. I realized this one may be out of my league, and I called the vet on Wednesday morning and asked for an emergency appointment. Unfortunately, it was the doc's day off, so the best they could offer was first thing on Thursday. I took it.
By Wednesday night, I could no longer find Milo. But I went upstairs and followed the odor - yes, the infections get that bad.
When I pulled him out from under a bed, I had a sickening feeling that he was systemically ill. I put him in a cat carrier at 12:00 midnight, and drove to the emergency vet. That vet examined him, his temperature was about 103.7. He was given a morphine injection for pain, and some kind of sedative that put him out. Then they lanced the infection, drained it, and put him in a collar. They gave him an antibiotic injection, and gave me more antibiotics to take home.
The emergency vet wanted to know what definitive treatment my regular vet had proposed. I told him that she preferred to handle the infections as they arose. He said that Milo's ears are now structurally non-functional (although he can hear). Actually, he said that they are little more than a source of pain and dangerous infection. The infections will be a greater health risk as he continues to age. In a nutshell, he said that if Milo was his cat, he would amputate his ears. When I mentioned the objects falling into his ears without the protection of the ear structure, he made a good point. He said, "If something fell in there now, you'd never get to it". He also noticed a small, hard, dark, circular object inside the ear. I had noticed it too. I thought it was a tiny pebble that had gotten stuck under the skin during the healing process. The vet said that the body would have rejected a foreign object. He believes it is a melanoma (a cancer), and that would be another reason to strongly consider the amputation.
The only risk, he claims, in amputation is the bleeding involved as the ears are a highly vascular area. I can't stand seeing this cat deal with these horrendous infections, and I am leaning towards the amputation.
Is anyone familiar with this procedure. Results? Pros? Cons? Opinions? Thank you so much for taking the time to read this lengthy post.
