Horner's Syndrome?

[scoutandmaxine]

Are both her eardrums still intact? I don’t remember. But I thought you said one may be ruptured. Please check with your vet before putting stuff in her ears if you’re not certain both eardrums are intact. If they are intact and the vet says it’s okay to use a solution in her ears, brew a cup of chamomile tea. Allow it to cool to lukewarm. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Soak some up with a cotton ball or makeup pad and squeeze a few drops into the top of her ear. Let her shake it in. It’s a natural anti-microbial solution that is also soothing and you don’t need a prescription for it.

There may be a dietary component to her ear infection. Krista got ear infections if she ate too much fish. Rawz makes excellent single protein pates that are very useful for figuring out food allergies because they don’t mix proteins. Does she also eat dry food? And does she throw up hairballs? It is possible the ear infections are the tip of the spear. If it is a food allergy, there may also be inflammation in her gut. That might explain why she seems off. Of course, vestibular disease or Horner’s can do that too.

When did the vet want to recheck her ears?

Her ear drums were not ruptured, thankfully. I am also wondering if this could all be related to a food allergy. She prefers dry food although sometimes she'll take a few bites of wet food. She's been very picky since this ordeal started and the only food she'll eat is fancy feast dry food, which I know is junk but I've spent so much on more expensive brands that she's just not at all interested in. I am not sure if she gets hairballs or if its my other fluffier cat that does, and its only occasional, not often. Rawz sounds like something I'll definitely look into. She does seem to be itchy all over but not to the point of losing any hair. And she is still shaking her head too so its definitely that same ear causing her discomfort. My other cat gets allergies but it seems to be environmental and goes away without issue. So not sure if this could be like that too? I do like the chamomile tea idea. I'm obsessed with chamomile tea myself so I have that already haha. Just need to find Apple cider vinegar. Will that help with the scratching?

 

[scoutandmaxine]

Are both her eardrums still intact? I don’t remember. But I thought you said one may be ruptured. Please check with your vet before putting stuff in her ears if you’re not certain both eardrums are intact. If they are intact and the vet says it’s okay to use a solution in her ears, brew a cup of chamomile tea. Allow it to cool to lukewarm. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Soak some up with a cotton ball or makeup pad and squeeze a few drops into the top of her ear. Let her shake it in. It’s a natural anti-microbial solution that is also soothing and you don’t need a prescription for it.

There may be a dietary component to her ear infection. Krista got ear infections if she ate too much fish. Rawz makes excellent single protein pates that are very useful for figuring out food allergies because they don’t mix proteins. Does she also eat dry food? And does she throw up hairballs? It is possible the ear infections are the tip of the spear. If it is a food allergy, there may also be inflammation in her gut. That might explain why she seems off. An ultrasound can confirm that. Though I don’t know if you want to go down that rabbit hole yet. Of course, vestibular disease or Horner’s can also leave her looking/feeling “off”.

When did the vet want to recheck her ears?

She has a recheck with the vet on the 23rd.

 

[daftcat75]

Her ear drums were not ruptured, thankfully. I am also wondering if this could all be related to a food allergy. She prefers dry food although sometimes she'll take a few bites of wet food. She's been very picky since this ordeal started and the only food she'll eat is fancy feast dry food, which I know is junk but I've spent so much on more expensive brands that she's just not at all interested in. I am not sure if she gets hairballs or if its my other fluffier cat that does, and its only occasional, not often. Rawz sounds like something I'll definitely look into. She does seem to be itchy all over but not to the point of losing any hair. And she is still shaking her head too so its definitely that same ear causing her discomfort. My other cat gets allergies but it seems to be environmental and goes away without issue. So not sure if this could be like that too? I do like the chamomile tea idea. I'm obsessed with chamomile tea myself so I have that already haha. Just need to find Apple cider vinegar. Will that help with the scratching?

Search Google for the chamomile tea apple cider vinegar ear drops. I’ve seen as little as 1/4 tsp apple cider vineagar and as much as a 1:1 dilution. Maybe start with a teaspoon per cup and “play it by ear.” Krista hated anything going into her ears. But the ear scratching and head shaking would subside shortly after giving her some “ear tea.”

 

[Xena44]

Are both her eardrums still intact? I don’t remember. But I thought you said one may be ruptured. Please check with your vet before putting stuff in her ears if you’re not certain both eardrums are intact. If they are intact and the vet says it’s okay to use a solution in her ears, brew a cup of chamomile tea. Allow it to cool to lukewarm. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Soak some up with a cotton ball or makeup pad and squeeze a few drops into the top of her ear. Let her shake it in. It’s a natural anti-microbial solution that is also soothing and you don’t need a prescription for it.

There may be a dietary component to her ear infection. Krista got ear infections if she ate too much fish. Rawz makes excellent single protein pates that are very useful for figuring out food allergies because they don’t mix proteins. Does she also eat dry food? And does she throw up hairballs? It is possible the ear infections are the tip of the spear. If it is a food allergy, there may also be inflammation in her gut. That might explain why she seems off. An ultrasound can confirm that. Though I don’t know if you want to go down that rabbit hole yet. Of course, vestibular disease or Horner’s can also leave her looking/feeling “off”.

When did the vet want to recheck her ears?

Good ideas. (I do remember her saying that the ear drums were intact)

 

[scoutandmaxine]

Update: At her vet recheck, they cleaned out her right ear again and confirmed its still got an infection. They prescribed Tresaderm, 3 drops every 12 hours for 10 days. She definitely hates it but is doing okay. Her eye is still not quite back to normal. There are times when it looks a lot better and times when the eyelid will go up again for a bit. The pupil not dilating is worrying to me. Not sure if that will change given time or if anything can be done? I mentioned it at her recheck but they just said once the infection is gone then it should be fine. So I'm hoping we're at the end of the road here soon. If anyone has any experience with Tresaderm I'd love to hear it. I am noticing quite a bit of gunk which I think may be the Tresaderm when it dries up? It doesn't look like ear wax but it feels waxy and there's quite a bit of it at the edges of her ear. I try to clean up as much as she'll allow me to. She isn't scratching so much anymore which is good but she is still occasionally shaking her head. I am on day 6 of the Tresaderm. Any input is appreciated. Thank you!

 

[daftcat75]

Infections are nasty business. Stay the course. Because whatever is left behind is, by definition, stronger than what's been dealt with already. I don't remember Tresaderm. I know Krista didn't like the stuff because she didn't like anything going in her ears. Ask the vet about the gunk and perhaps you can try that vinegar/chamomile tea solution I mentioned if she needs relief between Tresaderm doses.

 

[Xena44]

So sorry I was MIA for a bit. I always put tresaderm in my pocket for 10 min. or so to bring it to body temp (as it’s kept refrigerated) before instilling it in the ears. It makes it much more comfy for the kitty. Sounds like the tresaderm was just flushing out the exudate caused by the infection to me. How is she now?

 

[scoutandmaxine]

Shes finished with the Tresaderm and it did seem to help while using it. But now that it's done she is shaking her head again and occasionally scratching. I have noticed its worse after breakfast and she's also biting her feet. So I'm assuming it's an allergy of some kind but figuring out what is the problem. I've been looking into a good hypoallergenic dry cat food for her since it seems worse after eating. She's currently eating purina pro plan Sensitive skin and stomach turkey food. But that's clearly not helping. So hopefully I can find a better option, maybe something with no chicken in it? Shes always ate chicken so maybe shes developed an allergy to it.

 

[daftcat75]

You’ll have the most luck figuring out food allergies with a homemade diet. But that’s a bit of work and many don’t feel up to it. Your next best bet would be an IBD kitty diet. A truly limited ingredient diet (not just the marketing claim on the label) of all wet food, single protein, no gums, no grains, no starches. Rawz brand pates are the gold standard for IBD and food allergy cats.

It is exceedingly difficult and maybe impossible to conduct food trials with dry food. The majority of probable cat allergens come from substituting plant sources for animal ingredients. It’s almost impossible to eliminate those plant-based ingredients and still have a shelf stable dry food.

Short term, if you can find a hypoallergenic dry food, it’s worth a try. Try Dr Elsey’s Clean Protein, Tiki Cat, or Rawz brands which at least try to avoid most of the nonsense plant-based ingredients.

I don’t believe you’ll solve this with a change in dry food, though. Rather, I imagine whatever she is reacting to is not the chicken but one of the grains or starches (corn or peas or some other non-animal nonsense.)

While you are trying to find the unicorn dry food that probably doesn’t exist, I highly recommend transitioning her to an all wet food diet. There’s articles and tips on how to do that on this site. Start with grocery store brands like Friskies, Sheba, Fancy Feast. Popular brands are popular with cats. They would not be on the shelves otherwise. Once she’s eating all wet food, you can try to steer her to other higher quality wet foods. But to start with boutique brands is like asking her to trade cookies for broccoli. You can crumble freeze dried meat treats on top (or some of her dry food to start) to entice her. But ultimately you’re trying to reduce her universe of ingredients so it’s that much easier to trial her with new foods that add or remove a single ingredient. If you have two wet foods and the only difference between them is one has pea protein, this is an easy food trial. If you have two dry foods and the differences between them are a dozen different ingredients, this is not an easy trial.

 

[scoutandmaxine]

I am always trying to get her to eat more wet food. I have a variety of canned foods available for my other cat with kidney disease and every time I give her some, I make an effort to get Maxine to eat it too and the most she'll eat is a couple bites or she'll just flat out refuse it. She's unfortunately always preferred dry food. I'm going to continue trying to get her to eat some wet food but I don't want to starve her so I'm hoping to find some kind of dry food with limited ingredients that'll help a little bit at least.

 

[daftcat75]

You might not get there with dry food. You're welcome to try. I would start with Dr. Elsey's Cleanprotein foods. Aside from the proteins, I only see chickpeas, flaxseed, and natural flavor that might be problematic. Unfortunately, if she is reactive to chicken, all of their recipes include chicken and egg. You will almost certainly need to transition to all wet food if she has a chicken sensitivity/allergy. Even the little bit that's in many "natural flavors" can be enough to cause a reaction in those who are sensitive. But more often than not, dry foods list one protein on the front of the bag (rabbit, turkey, duck, etc) and then it's chicken this and chicken that when you actually read the ingredients.

I've heard of other members, taking up to a year to achieve it, who were finally able to convert their kibble addicts. I would read some of the kibble addicts threads here or create one of your own to solicit more tips. If you are dealing with an allergy here, it will be worth the effort. It may be the only thing that gets her relief.

EZ Complete might be a good first step in trying out homemade with her. It is the easiest as you can use raw or cooked meat and you don't have to handle any liver. For many cats, homemade is appealing enough to make that leap from dry to homemade without a wet food transition in between.
Food Fur Life - EZ Homemade raw food for pets!

 

[scoutandmaxine]

I'm not even sure what she's actually allergic to which makes this so much more difficult. I'm only guessing at the chicken possibility. I'm wondering if I should try something grain free first to see if that makes any difference? I've got a whole lot of seafood canned food, some are grain free, that I've been trying to get her to eat. But she hasnt had any grain free dry food yet so perhaps it's worth a shot if she starts getting overly picky again. I was actually glad when she started eating this dry food bc she was refusing to eat for awhile after the vet visits. But its so noticeable every morning how she'll eat her breakfast and then bathe like crazy, bite her paws, and shake her head. During the rest of the day when she is not eating, she is perfectly fine and normal. So it has to be food related but thats such an overwhelming task to figure out exactly what in the food is setting her off. I do really like the Dr Elseys option and think I want to give that a try, just not sure which flavor would be best for her? She's always preferred chicken or turkey. She won't eat my other cats dry food which is salmon. She doesn't like duck so much either. Ive tried tiki cat before and she refused to eat that.. she's so picky, it drives me nuts lol.