feline ceruminous cysts in ears

puff2000

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My cat has been diagnosed with ceruminous cysts in both ears. My vet says that they are small and gave me ear drops for an underlying infection. Have any of you had experience with dealing with these cysts? I can't seem to find much information about them. Thanks!
 

kskatt

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I hope you still check in from time to time. I have a cat with what looks like the same thing. I'd love to know how you dealt with it and how your cat is doing.
 

kskatt

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Yes, I have experience, but I had no idea what they were called. My experience was 25 years ago. Thank goodness for the Internet:

http://vetbook.org/wiki/cat/index.php/Ceruminous_adenoma

I found this interesting reading.
Did you ever get a diagnosis? What did you do?

Thank you for the link, I had already read it, along with several others. All very informative, but I would love to hear about first hand experience.

My cat has had those cysts in his ears for over two years. The vet said infection, them embedded ear mites. I did a search for embedded ear mites and found nothing. I guess he just isn't aware of the cysts. I'm seeing a new vet now. Still need to get Zeus in.
 

misterwhiskers

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Well, 25 years ago things were different. We had 2 cats with it and it was heartbreaking. It was our Siamese and her big old mixed breed son. Both had great personalities. The vet we mostly relied on suspected a genetic link. Another vet said like yours, embedded ear mites. I've no doubt the "treatment" for the "ear mites" made things go from bad to worse.

Our Siamese was treated for ear mites. I don't know if the same stuff was available for them back then. We were given like oily drops and tips. (It didn't help that all the cats had varying ear mites, and there were up to 5 at one point. ) The Siamese ears bled. It was awful. Vets were useless. Finally we had to put her to sleep...against our mothers wishes. It bothers me even today. Such a great cat but she was in such distress....she was only 11 or so, but no matter what pill or cream the vet gave, within a week it would be aweful again. Surgery was never discussed that I know of (she was my mothers cat but only saw a vet when one of my siblings and I scraped the money to bring her in, and we were all like early 20s with bad jobs.)

The son was a different story. By this time the cat was in the hands of me and my sister, because our parents had died. Finally we heard the word cyst or tumor and that no, it wasn't really ear mite related. But he required multiple surgeries...the last one literally removed his ears. My sister and I cried and cried. They had never told us they were going to do that. We were so angry. He did live to be 16.

My suggestion is you see if possible a specialist in cat ears. My story will likely scare the pants off you, and I'm sorry, but it should be a cautionary tale. There was not the internet those years ago...30 years for the mama cat, about 25 for her son. Both really good cats who deserved a vet who looked into things more. Like I said, we ended up being told it was a genetic thing, that Siamese were predisposed to.

My personal belief--just to me--is that it's like a neirofibroma type thing. For your cats sake, I hope you get a really good vet. Show your my story if you want because it shows how your cat and you SHOULDNT be treated....

Sending prayers to your fur kid that the vets have learned a bit in 30 years.
 

kskatt

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I do understand it was a very long time ago, I'm just having trouble finding anyone, yet. Your poor female, that sounds horrible! Did her ears bleed from the cysts or the drops?

I'm feeling very let down that my (old) vet had not heard of this, or didn't take the time to look. Zeus does hold his ears to the side and does some shaking. It looks miserable. The lazers make this kind of delicate surgery much better, at least.

I'm sorry, I did not realize your experience was so bad. Sorry I reopened a wound.
 

cj82kitters

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Hi - my cat had the same issue and we successfully treated it at my vet with cryosurgery. It was very minimally invasive which is good since she's 15 years old! It was a huge help and while it's been over a year and they did grow back, they're not nearly as bad as before. I'm researching alternative therapies now (such as diet, etc.) since she does have overactive sebaceous glands which can be linked to this issue as well. They are non-cancerous (in her case). I wrote a few blogs on it here if it helps: http://caringvets.com/2014/08/treating-feline-ceruminous-cystomatosis-cryosurgery/

Good luck and please share any updates you have! I'll do the same as I research the impact of diet and allergies in here as well.
Thanks!
 

Rosie250

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My cat (12 years old) has ceruminous cysts too in one ear that had been getting worse over about 3 years. After taking him to 2 vets they couldn't really give me anything actionable to do to slow or stop their growth. Removal of the cysts sounded intense, expensive, and not curative. They recommended that I clean his ears every two weeks with an antibiotic wash to help move wax out and provide comfort but told me that they would never go away.

Because they worried me so much and he was obviously uncomfortable I started to think of environmental factors that might be out of the ordinary. We had been using clay-based litter for him (specifically the Scoop Away brand) for almost his entire life and I hypothesized that perhaps it was some kind of immunological response like an allergy to the dust.

So I switched to a grass seed litter just to see (specifically SmartCat All Natural Clumping Litter). Within a week or so I noticed that he had far fewer eye boogies and his ear seemed to be irritating him less. It has been about six months now and the cysts are definitely shrinking and getting lighter. I would say they're about 40-50% smaller and they just look less bulbous. Zero eye boogies too! I used to wipe his ears out approximately every week when I noticed him looking uncomfortable and that would help in the short term. Now it's monthly or less frequent that he shows any signs of ear discomfort and a quick wipe to get some wax out suffices rather than a whole intense ear wash.

Just so you don't think I'm trying to advertise for some litter I will tell you that the litter is more expensive. Not by a ton though. It's much lighter than clay litter and has zero dust and clumps like a champ so that's nice. It starts off super fresh but after about 2-3 weeks needs to be completely changed out (no top off freshen will help) because it starts to smell like ammonia. I'm sure there are other brands that I'm not familiar with that make cat litter with grass seeds that are cheaper. Also, another downside that I'm not sure is related is that my cat seems to get an oilier coat and I have to grab him and wipe him with a wet paper towel occasionally. I hypothesize that the old dusty litter acted like a dry shampoo. Anyway, the expense and occasional paper towel wipe down seem to be the only downsides and I rationalize the cost with how much vet visits cost and my cat's overall comfort.

I made an account on this site just to leave this post because I read this forum in my own research and want to help others who may be looking for something to try. The litter was the only thing that changed in his environment and was an easy change so it seems worth a post.
 

mani

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Hi Rosie250 Rosie250 and welcome to TCS!
This is an older thread, but your post is a welcome addition for those looking for answers.
Perhaps you would like to come and introduce yourself in our New Cats on the Block forum? :)
 

vdecleyre

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Hi Rosie250 Rosie250 and welcome to TCS!
This is an older thread, but your post is a welcome addition for those looking for answers.
Perhaps you would like to come and introduce yourself in our New Cats on the Block forum? :)
My cat (12 years old) has ceruminous cysts too in one ear that had been getting worse over about 3 years....
I'm new here but I thought I would add to this discussion. My cat had these when I adopted him at age 8 (allegedly) from a shelter. That was 9 years ago. One in his left ear was particularly large. I had another cat, had owned multiple cats for about 17 years at that point, but had never encountered this before in any of my shelter or stray adopted cats.

My vet (who I'd had for about 20 years at that point) told me they were ear polyps resulting from chronic infection with ear mites, so that was treated first. Then the largest was surgically removed. Well, I don't know exactly how he did it, but I know it didn't involve CO2 laser or cryosurgery, because this vet doesn't have any of that equipment (he's older, has a very bare bones clinic that looks like it wad last updated in the late 80s/early 90s).

But within 2 years, that big "polyp" began growing back & within 4 years it was as big as it had been when my vet originally removed it surgically. Once again my vet said it was chronic ear mites causing the polyps. Once again we treated for ear mites. This did nothing to improve the situation. The large "polyp" remained. His ear, with a misshapen canal ever since I'd adopted him, had chronic problems clearing wax from it. The vet wanted to do surgery again, but I declined bc he could not guarantee that the "polyp" (that's what he keptcalling then) wouldn't return... And I had begun suspecting his diagnosis & treatment. I'm not saying he did it just to get around $1,500 from me, but that's what I paid for the first surgery, & I felt if the diagnosis had been correct, the treatment (surgery & mite treatment) would have worked.

After I declined the second surgery, the very seemed to write my cat off. Occasionally the cat would get ear infections; he'd RX antibiotic ointment; the infection would clear; eventually it'd come back. My vet was still treating my dog & other cat (wellness exams, senior pet check-ups, etc), so I continued seeing him.

The third time the vet said he had ear mites causing a secondary infection, I asked the vet to prove that ear mites were the cause. He showed me the inside of my cat's ear, but I didn't see anything different. Them he scolded me that untreated mites in one cat would be transmitted to my other cat. Since the other cat had never gotten these "mites," the other 2 times cat 1 (Fox) had been treated for them, I was very skeptical at that point.

At this point, frustrated, I asked the vet the take some ear wax scrapings & show me the mites under a microscope (I had been doing my research!). He refused & got angry, said not treating the mites would infect my other cat (Vex), & I was being an irresponsible pet owner if I DIDN'T treat the mites. I got angry right back & said if the problem was mites, why did the "polyp" grow back in exactly the same place & was now as big as it was before the surgery? We disagreed but since I still planned on going there for my other cat and dog, I backed down, took the ear mite treatment, dropped another $300 for Fox's treatment & went home to do more research.

Well I'm an RN. I understand medical & anatomical terminology, even though I'm not trained in veterinary care, so I figured since nothing had worked, it couldn't do any harm to do more research. I started researching with veterinary journals and sites (like the Merck Veterinary manual). Also, during this time, I got a microscope. (Because what's another $150 when you've already spent about $2,000 cumulatively on the same problem, with no resolution of the problem?) I scraped wax from both ears, from multiple places, putting them on different slides (which are all plastic now, so they can't break). I looked at every wax smear under the microscope. NO MITES. Just you make sure it wasn't the microscope, I scraped my own T-zone, smeared that on a slide, & looked for the tiny face mites we humans all have (yes, it's true, please look it up). MY mites were visible, so if my cat had ANY mites in any of the earwax smears, I WOULD'VE SEEN THEM.

I continued researching. At first I thought they might be nasopharyngeal polyps that had invaded the ear... But the appearance of those was completely different - the REAL polyps are flesh colored or pink, whereas Fox's ear bumps & lumps were dark blue or black. Finally I found the right into & the pictures matched my cat's ears EXACTLY. They aren't polyps, they're ceruminous gland cysts. I read up on the treatment & found that after treating any concurrent ear infection, laser ablation could be done. Only problem is, by this time my little Fox was 14 & the vet also claimed that he had early indications of impending kidney failure. (I was suspicious of that as well - when the only lab that can process that test is the lab that invented it, obviously there's a huge financial incentive for them to promote use of their test, rather than the usual BUN & Creatinine kidney blood tests). So of course I was going to have to buy special kidney food from the vet for Fox as well. He said other things I knew were bald-faced lies so by that time I didn't argue, I just knew I didn't believe him.

(For example, he said that veterinary medications for pets that are the same meds given to humans with the same health problems - such as like methimazole, insulin, glucosamine/chondroitin - must be purchased in their veterinary forms & given in veterinary form (which he sold, of course) because the veterinary versions were more "bioavailable." Well, I knew that was crap, bc when my other cat Vex had a flare-up of his herpes & began getting little mouth sores, I first tried the chicken flavored veterinary L-lysine paste, & the cat hated it & wouldn't eat it, so I had to smear it on his face but he just scraped it off with a paw & walked away leaving little globs of this paste on the floor & carpet. I got tired of forcing it on him & him fighting & us both being miserable. So I went to GNC, bought human L-lysine capsules, & began sprinkling a little of the powder from each capsule on his food... He ate it unknowingly... & his mouth sores went away. And that's exactly how it works in humans, though they usually get acyclovir first. Also Costco fills veterinary RXs (which my vet refused to write so I could get them filled at Costco)! I had also gone thru an $80 tube of veterinary glucosamine/chondroitin for dogs with similar results: my dog hated it. He would actually eat *around* it when I put the paste on his food. But when I got human glucos/chond capsules & sprinkled part of one on his food every day, after a few weeks, Fritz's touchy-ness about having his feet touched or waking up growling when they were brushed against while he slept, went away!)

So at this point, another mite treatment having failed & Having seen NO mites in the microscope in any of Fox's ear wax smears, I continued on with my research.

Fed up by this time (almost to the present day), I fortunately stumbled across treatment strategies for ceruminous gland cysts in the senior cat who was not an appropriate patient for anesthesia & laser surgery due to age. It was mentioned that for those cats, any ear infection caused by obstructing cysts should be treated with antibiotic ointment & once cleared, steroid treatment would reduce the cysts & prevent formation & enlargement of new & existing cysts.

It so happened that I myself had recently had a cyst on my eyelid removed a couple months before, & I still had some post-removal ophthalmic antibiotic ointment left because I'd only had to use it for 3 days after the office procedure (it was very minor, done only with local anesthesia by injected lidocaine).

So I began using the rest of my ophthalmic antibiotic ointment in my cat's ear. The bad smell that had begun which I knew indicated infection went away in a couple days, as did the slight purulent (pus-y) drainage that had just begun because he kept scratching his ear, poor thing, making it worse. His cysts began to shrink, too, which seemed weird! One day when I had finished giving his ear the ointment, I looked closer at the tiny tube with my bifocals... Not only did it have triple antibiotic (neomycin & polymyxin B sulfate) but it also had a steroid: dexamethasone (also used in humans... what a surprise...). So I had inadvertently been treating his cysts with both antibiotics AND a steroid. That explained the shrinkage of the cysts in addition to the clearing of the infection.

For continuous/chronic treatment, my sources had said budesonide (also used in humans... for asthma/COPD) ointment daily in the ear would help shrink cysts & prevent formation of new ones. I lucked out: my former roommate had left several packages of budesonide liquid in single use tubes for his nebulizer, because they hag switched his nebulizer medication anyway, so our was just one less thing to pack & move. So once the antibiotic/steroid ointment was gone, I emptied one tube of budesonide liquid into a travel spray bottle & began spraying 2 sprays in his worst ear, the left, & 1 spray in his other ear, the right one, which has only very small seed like cysts. The cysts are shrinking in both ears (the worst ear much more slowly) & I will continue doing this to maintain his ears so that they aren't itchy &the cysts are in check, if not gone. Knowing he is prone to them, since he had them when I got him from the shelter 8 years ago, even if the cysts did completely disappear (which I doubt; that seems like an unrealistic expectation), I would continue this treatment in his ears daily.

Questions that have occurred to me only recently: if this is allergic mast cell driver... might using a mast-cell inhibitor such as cromolyn sodium (available over the counter, OTC) also work? (It comes in nasal spray form to treat allergic rhinitis, i.e. allergic runny nose. It's a mast-cell degranulation inhibitor. But since some of the varied names for ceruminous gland cysts include benign ceruminous mastocytosis... That indicates a mast cell dysfunction. So...? Seems like a logical leap to make.

Of course I've been looking for a new vet. It's harder to pull the wool over my eyes because of my education & training. & now I wonder how many times past vets lied to me... Although most of them, I think, didn't. Hopefully...

Anyway, even though this started out as just miserable for my cat Fox (& me; I have scars from being clawed), & despite the repeated misdiagnoses, I feel really lucky that I was able to figure out what was wrong, & that I serendipitously had on hand (for human use) exactly what was needed: first the antibiotic/steroid ointment, & then the liquid budesonide. And thank God for the internet, & all those research journals & manuals that are online! That's how I was able to get the information that my nursing training & education allowed me to understand & implement.

I do not recommend anyone do it this way (unless they are also a healthcare professional). If your vet isn't solving the problem - or any recurrent problem! - get a second opinion from another vet. While in general I prefer older, gray haired doctors & vets because they learned old school & often simple, low tech treatments that *work*... I may change that strategy. Because even if they're old & experienced, if they don't stay up to date in their field, they won't have the latest information (let alone equipment).

That being said, I still don't think I'll put Fox through a ladder ablation surgery. He's too old (17 now, if the shelter info of age 8 was correct back in 2010), & he's very small (about 8 lbs). It'd be easy to overdose him with anesthesia.
 
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