Need advice on a problem ear

[sierramist]

Hey all, if you read my thread in the stray forum, we've taken in an adorable kitten who had what we thought would be a few health issues, but thankfully she's been cleared of most!

I even thought she had ear mites because she kept bothering her left ear, but the vet looked under a microscope and she just seems to have some yeast and bacteria in there (but she didn't call it an infection). They also did a clean of the ears as best they could yesterday, then prescribed Tresaderm.

Being the paranoid cat mom I am, I've been searching for info on Tresaderm before trying to give it to her, and there are some alarming reviews out there about deafness and other negative side effects.

First, has anyone here used Tresaderm or had any problems with it? I worry that her ears aren't really too bad, but will be made worse with the drops. Her right ear is pretty good in general, and since the cleaning yesterday she hasn't really scratched at her ears much at all, though there's still some goop in the left one (see picture below). I'm tempted to skip the drops altogether. Any advice is appreciated!

 

[alana0011]

Several of my cats have been on Tresaderm, and there haven't been problems with it. Some of them get an oti-pack every now and then too, and that is helpful as well.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I believe it's a mixed bag. Some people have had no issues using it, other have had the opposite. Here is the search I did where you can read the different things that have happened. You can always ask your Vet for something different if you have doubts

Search Results for Query: tresaderm

 

[dmanski]

@ sierramist - Yes, it is a mixed bag with Tresaderm. I have read lots of positive experiences with the medicine. That being said, my experience has been terrible and nearly fatal with it. And I have read other similar experiences, as you mentioned. My 4 yr old Maine Coon (previously very healthy) reacted very badly to the treatment. She was prescibed Tresaderm for the same reasons you mentioned. Previously I had been cleaning her ears on my own, and managing the dirt/yeast build up on my own. After switching to a new vet, they recommended Tresaderm. I personally would be very cautious about using this drug. My experience is as follows:
The first Tresaderm treatment was in January of 2022. Immediately following treatment my cat had severe diarrhea, became lethargic, showed no interest in eating and then began throwing up. She was hospitalized and her blood work showed extremely elevated ALT, AST, Alk Phosphatase, and CPK levels. Essentially her liver was beginning to fail. After a month of antibiotics, she was able to recover fully. However at the time no connection was made between the Tresaderm and the illness. Just 3 weeks ago, she was prescribed Tresaderm again, and the same exact pattern began to happen after finishing treatment. Luckily this time, I recognized the connection between Tresaderm and the symptoms. The blood work showed the same elevated levels, and she has begun another round of antibiotics. Unfortunately my Vet is not open to the possibility that this is related to Tresaderm. However, upon doing more research, this does seem to be a side effect (somewhat rare) that is occurring with other cats.
Hope this helps!

 

[sierramist]

I ended up not giving it to her, BUT — yesterday during her spay they noticed she still had a yeast infection going on, so now we've been given Mometavet to put in her ears once a day for 7 days to knock that out.

This medicine seems to be mostly for dogs (?), but I'm going to trust the vet that they know what they're doing. Putting stuff in cats' ears always makes me more nervous for some reason, but hoping this knocks the infection out for good.

 

[di and bob]

The infection itself can cause deafness and problems. Just follow the instructions exactly and you shouldn't have any problems. Most people have problems when they put in too little or too much!

 

[sierramist]

We just did her first dose (technically second, since the vet did the first day yesterday) of the drops! Whew, and successfully, I think, but it took a couple of tries to get the squeeze on the bottle just right to get it to come out. She shook her head a few times afterward and now the exterior of her ears are pretty wet. Let it go, or try to wipe it off?

She's kind of washing her face now and I worry about her ingesting some. But hey — my kitties are always my biggest source of worry, ha ha!

 

[fionasmom]

Anything that is not in the ear and not going to help with the infection can be wiped off. Just leave the ear itself alone.

I certainly don't disagree with anyone that medications can cause problems, even serious ones, but I have used Tresaderm on cats without an issue.

 

[martymcjackson]

sierramist if you ever end up using Tresaderm, I would strongly suggest watching your cat very closely for any signs of liver or biliary illness such as refusing food, vomiting, or jaundice of the skin. My 8 year-old Jackson developed cholangiohepatitis after one week of taking Tresaderm exactly as prescribed, and he didn't survive, despite several days spent in the hospital receiving treatment. I have no way of knowing for certain if it was the Tresaderm, but like D dmanski I did report the incident to the drug company in case there is an under-reported phenomenon of this type of adverse event in cats. Warm wishes and good luck to you and your furbabies!

 

[sierramist]

We're using the Mometavet now that the vet prescribed, not Tresderm. There doesn't seem to be as much information out there about Mometavet, but so far so good, other than she's obviously not a fan of having it put in her ears, and cleans her face pretty much all day afterwards. 5 days to go!

 

[Star2222]

@ sierramist - Yes, it is a mixed bag with Tresaderm. I have read lots of positive experiences with the medicine. That being said, my experience has been terrible and nearly fatal with it. And I have read other similar experiences, as you mentioned. My 4 yr old Maine Coon (previously very healthy) reacted very badly to the treatment. She was prescibed Tresaderm for the same reasons you mentioned. Previously I had been cleaning her ears on my own, and managing the dirt/yeast build up on my own. After switching to a new vet, they recommended Tresaderm. I personally would be very cautious about using this drug. My experience is as follows:
The first Tresaderm treatment was in January of 2022. Immediately following treatment my cat had severe diarrhea, became lethargic, showed no interest in eating and then began throwing up. She was hospitalized and her blood work showed extremely elevated ALT, AST, Alk Phosphatase, and CPK levels. Essentially her liver was beginning to fail. After a month of antibiotics, she was able to recover fully. However at the time no connection was made between the Tresaderm and the illness. Just 3 weeks ago, she was prescribed Tresaderm again, and the same exact pattern began to happen after finishing treatment. Luckily this time, I recognized the connection between Tresaderm and the symptoms. The blood work showed the same elevated levels, and she has begun another round of antibiotics. Unfortunately my Vet is not open to the possibility that this is related to Tresaderm. However, upon doing more research, this does seem to be a side effect (somewhat rare) that is occurring with other cats.
Hope this helps!

Hi
I’m going through this now… just finished 7 days Tresaderm … diarrhea vomiting not peeing liver tests elevated … what did they diagnose and what antibiotics did they treat with …. Thank you

 

[dmanski]

Hi
I’m going through this now… just finished 7 days Tresaderm … diarrhea vomiting not peeing liver tests elevated … what did they diagnose and what antibiotics did they treat with …. Thank you

Hi,
So sorry to hear you are having the same issue with Tresaderm. This is very scary and I hope everything is ok.
They put our cat Romy on Clavomox, Ursodiol, and Metronidazole. We also gave her Denamarin (which is a supplement to help the liver heal itself naturally). As far as diagnosis, it is pretty clear that Romy had an allergic reaction to something in Tresaderm, probably the antifungal medicine. However the vet wasn't willing to agree with this diagnosis, probably because she had prescribed the medicine and didn't want to be held responsible. But now that we have switched to a different vet, they agree that this was most likely the cause. There isn't a lot of info out there about this side effect from Tresaderm, but there are other people having similar experiences. Hoping everything works out alright!

 

[Star2222]

Thank you for the additional info… because of your original post I was able to make the link quickly to Tresaderm and stop the medicine. This new vet put him on the Denamarin as well and meds to stop vomiting. He was a slow go for first 24 hours but he started to takes bites of food again every 2 hours. A little more each time. Thankfully he finally was able to pee against last night (it had been more than 24 hours) and he is up and around today so that’s great the lethargy going away. His liver tests were somewhat improved today but still out of range. We are testing every 24 hours until normal. I’ll take the improvement. He’s the air I breathe (I know, don’t tell my husband that …. Lol but he’d probably agree) so I’m so thankful he’s doing better. I appreciate the meds info above in case we don’t sustain improvement… have a great day!

 

[dmanski]

Thank you for the additional info… because of your original post I was able to make the link quickly to Tresaderm and stop the medicine. This new vet put him on the Denamarin as well and meds to stop vomiting. He was a slow go for first 24 hours but he started to takes bites of food again every 2 hours. A little more each time. Thankfully he finally was able to pee against last night (it had been more than 24 hours) and he is up and around today so that’s great the lethargy going away. His liver tests were somewhat improved today but still out of range. We are testing every 24 hours until normal. I’ll take the improvement. He’s the air I breathe (I know, don’t tell my husband that …. Lol but he’d probably agree) so I’m so thankful he’s doing better. I appreciate the meds info above in case we don’t sustain improvement… have a great day!

Great, so glad to hear he is doing better! I would imagine it will take some time for him to be back to normal. Hopefully his liver normalizes and he continues to improve.

 

[Star2222]

May I ask… were you successful in manually managing yeast/bacteria debris build up in ears? If yes… what method did you use ? Thank you

 

[dmanski]

May I ask… were you successful in manually managing yeast/bacteria debris build up in ears? If yes… what method did you use ? Thank you

No, unfortunately we haven't had any luck getting rid of the yeast/bacteria build up in the ears. It varies how bad it is (currently it's quite bad). Sometimes we have to clean her ears daily, sometimes every few days. We use q-tips (most vets recommend not doing this at home, but we have gotten good at it), gauze wipes and Virbac Epi-Otic Advanced Ear Cleanser for Dogs & Cats. The vet has tested for ear mites and yeast, both of which have come back negative. Their best bet is it is allergy related, possibly food related. We have just been managing it as best we can, and bring her into the vet for ear cleanings every so often.

 

[stephanietx]

For yeast infections in the ear, ask your vet about BNT Ear Ointment. We successfully used this many (many) years ago with my kitty who was struggling with chronic ear infections. She was sedated and the vet did a deep clean/flush of her ears and then used the ointment. She never had another ear infection. We had tried a couple of different drops with no success. It's somewhat messy as the doctor applies the ointment down the ear canal and opening. The body then absorbs the ointment over a period of about 2 weeks.

BCP Veterinary Pharmacy

 

[Star2222]

We have been in same boat over last few months… cleaning daily with qtips with wash.. carefully of course. This new vet recommended an advance culture that takes days to process but determines exactly what type of bacteria it is. We will probably try that next. The only other suggestion from old vet was off label drops that might work … um… no thanks! Good luck to you and your Romy !

 

[cejhome]

Food allergies can cause reoccurring yeast infections in ears. We had a cat years ago that had that happen. Adopted him from a rescue with a yeast infection in both ears. His poor ears were red! He also threw up a lot. The rescue had kept treating him for ear mites and yeast. We found out he was very allergic to all grain (specialist vet, endoscope, etc.) Once we removed grain from his diet, he never had any ear issues.

 

[dmanski]

We have been in same boat over last few months… cleaning daily with qtips with wash.. carefully of course. This new vet recommended an advance culture that takes days to process but determines exactly what type of bacteria it is. We will probably try that next. The only other suggestion from old vet was off label drops that might work … um… no thanks! Good luck to you and your Romy !

Thank you! Best of luck to you as well!