Ear Polyp

[AJS]

Hiya,

Don’t suppose anyone could help me/shed some light...

We think our cat has got a polyp in our ear and the vet seems to think so too.

Does anyone know a ball park figure of how much it could cost to gave it ether removed? (In GBP)

We normally tend to take Sherlock to Vets for Pets.

Thanks in advance

 

[AJS]

As well he is a three year old cat

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

The cost for procedures varies vastly from Vet to Vet. I think your best bet is to simply call around and ask different Vets.

 

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

Hi AJS,

Our 7.5 year cat has a ear polyp which has grown into the inner ear. I am also trying to figure out cost. The two main routes to treat the problem are pulling or surgery. Pulling is much cheaper but has a dismal success rate. The polyp will likely return. Surgery is expensive and varies enough that I can't seem to find a straight answer. The best I can tell right now from my research is that it will cost somewhere between $2,500 and $4,500. I am in San Francisco so I am assuming at least the upper end of that range. Sigh.

 

[MonkeyGingy2]

My experience was that we needed an X-ray and then we elected to have a biopsy. No cancer but it was too large to remove on its own and would require the entire inner ear to be removed. He was older and started to have ear infections that did not respond to antibiotics anymore. The surgery ended up complicated as it had adhered to his mandibular joint. Wish we had known and done it sooner. It was a good 6 months recouperation and cost was around 10,000.00. If you can catch it early enough it may be an easier and less costly issue for you.

 

[epona]

I replied to a very similar thread recently? One of my cats had a Ventral Bulla Osteotomy a couple of weeks ago to remove polyps (and the tissue they were growing from, this is the more complicated surgery with a higher success rate).

We were initially quoted £2,500 to £3,000 - this included a CT scan, which showed that both ears were affected which raised the cost a bit to £3,500 (a large proportion of the bill is for hospital stay, anaesthesia, so it being both ears didn't double the cost thank goodness!) These are prices in London, which may be higher than elsewhere in the country due to high costs of having a large building and higher wages here, so if you are outside of London it may not be quite that expensive - but your vet should be able to give you an estimate and a referral to a specialist surgeon (if your local vet doesn't have the experience for that kind of surgery, it is quite specialised). My bill did get higher because there have been post-surgical problems with my cat not eating, so he had to go back into hospital and stay for 4 days, and currently has a feeding tube while he convalesces at home (current bill stands at £4,500 or thereabouts, and we're not done yet).

The simpler/less expensive surgery involves just cutting the polyps off at their stalks, but there is a high chance of them growing back.

 

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

My experience was that we needed an X-ray and then we elected to have a biopsy. No cancer but it was too large to remove on its own and would require the entire inner ear to be removed. He was older and started to have ear infections that did not respond to antibiotics anymore. The surgery ended up complicated as it had adhered to his mandibular joint. Wish we had known and done it sooner. It was a good 6 months recouperation and cost was around 10,000.00. If you can catch it early enough it may be an easier and less costly issue for you.

Hi MonkeyGingy2,

Do you mind me asking the region you are located in that the cost was 10,000? And how old your cat was when the he was operated on?

Thanks.

 

[MonkeyGingy2]

We are in Ohio. He was gen years old and we knew of the polyp a year before but was able to relieve the ear infection with Otis packs. The polyp was too far in the canal to remove with general surgery. We had hoped it would not grow but in a years time it did and adhered to his mandibular joint. It was an extensive surgery and required a ten day hospital stay and the surgery was done by a surgical specialist so hence the cost. It was for the hospital stay as well as the surgery and six month follow up care which was from home.

 

[MonkeyGingy2]

Sorry, meant ten years old. Also it was Otic packs. Spell check tries too hard to help me.

 

[MonkeyGingy2]

Oti packs. Turned off spell check.

 

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

Thanks for the quick reply. I grew up in western Ohio, and then lived in Columbus for 13 years. Found memories, I may be back someday.

Our cat is 7.5 years and we first noticed the he was having balance problems about 6 months ago. We brought him to the vet but they didn't see anything wrong, or at least didn't check the right things, and sent us home with some steroids. He regained his balance after a week or two so we thought all was good. At the beginning of this year the balance issues came back and the vet easily diagnosed him with a bad ear infection. After 2 weeks we were able to get that under control and they could see the polyp. The vet snipped a bit and luckily the test came back benign.

When the infection cleared earlier this year he seemed to regain his balance but then in mid Feb. he started having issues again. Back to the vet, who then sent us to a dermatologist, who has now referred us for surgery. I am a bit peeved as I wasn't able to get a quote for the surgery. That visit cost me $400, and they want me to come back for a consultation, and then schedule surgery. I haven't scheduled the consultation as I am trying to understand what I should be paying as the place the surgeon they referred me to is the same as the dermatologist and the facility felt a bit on the fancy side so I can only imagine the cost of the surgery there will be on the high side.

To cut to the point... Thanks for your useful information. I appreciate it.

 

[MonkeyGingy2]

No problem, not sure my info was real helpful though.We live 40 minutes from Columbus and Dayton and have been able to to use the services of Ohio State Veterinary School. On this occasion we had surgery done by MedVets due to the surgeon and that we could visit him 24/7 as we wanted to. My boy did not seem to have balance issues much but just a lot of head shaking and the ear infections were getting worse as time went on. The polyp would not let the ear drain and the infections completely stopped responding to treatment. The polyp was way too far down the canal to see by sight much less get a piece for biopsy. We were referred to MedVets to get a specific X-ray and the biopsy had to be gotten below his chin line. It showed exactly what we needed to know but required the entire ear canal had to be removed which requires a considerable recovery time. We were given an estimate and it was pretty close to the outcome. Not sure why they can not give you some kind of cost. It seems if they can see it and can get to the stalk without removing the inner ear it certainly wouldn't be close to what we ended up having done. I do wish we had not tried to treat for a year with ineffective antibiotics but we can't go there as it is hard to say whether it got larger or not or when it adhered to his jaw bone. He was 10 at the time so it could have been a long term thing we were unaware of.

It does not seem unreasonable to get some kind of cost estimate from them as anyone would need to know that. My regular Vet had given me a bit of a heads up on cost before we went to consult which we had at the same time as X-ray/biopsy. They had no problem talking about costs but it was a bit frustrating so I understand your situation. Sounds like you may have some time to consider things. Hang in there and I hope for the best for you and kitty.