Hi guys,
Seeking some advice please, about 6 months ago our cat got into a fight and came home with a chunk of the tip of her ear missing however the wound looked like it 'split' the tip of her ear (picture instead of a 'healthy' ear looking like an oval shape, hers was more like McDonald's arches due to the missing piece at the tip). As you can expect she was very hesitant to have us inspect her ear so we thought we'd give it a day and inspect the following. By the next day her ear had scabbed up like normal and everything looked like the beginning of the healing process so we just thought we'd keep monitoring it.
Over the span of the next few weeks the tip of her ear grew back like normal however the scabbing wasn't dropping off but instead continued to grow 'out' from her ear as though the nearly healed previously missing chunk was now pushing the scabbing out. We've continued to monitor thinking that it'll just drop off once it's good and ready however it continues to refuse to do so and the scabbing has now over the last few months grown very large and is still attached.
I'm in two worlds as to whether to take her to the vet, on one hand it doesn't look to be bothering her and her mood and behaviors haven't changed. She doesn't like us touching it (as she flicks her ears whenever we try) however she doesn't get aggressive or defensive or run away when we do. Besides looking grotesque it doesn't seem to be causing her any grief so given that she's 16 years old, I'm a little hesitant to take her to the vet as the consultation alone will cost $120 and my assumption is that they'll want to do some skin samples and a bunch of testing which will be both invasive and costly. My expectation is that it's harmless and most likely her body just 'over healing', the scab just feels like a typical hard scab however if anyone can offer any suggestions as to what it might be and/or whether it were serious, then absolutely happy to get the vet to check it out.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks
Seeking some advice please, about 6 months ago our cat got into a fight and came home with a chunk of the tip of her ear missing however the wound looked like it 'split' the tip of her ear (picture instead of a 'healthy' ear looking like an oval shape, hers was more like McDonald's arches due to the missing piece at the tip). As you can expect she was very hesitant to have us inspect her ear so we thought we'd give it a day and inspect the following. By the next day her ear had scabbed up like normal and everything looked like the beginning of the healing process so we just thought we'd keep monitoring it.
Over the span of the next few weeks the tip of her ear grew back like normal however the scabbing wasn't dropping off but instead continued to grow 'out' from her ear as though the nearly healed previously missing chunk was now pushing the scabbing out. We've continued to monitor thinking that it'll just drop off once it's good and ready however it continues to refuse to do so and the scabbing has now over the last few months grown very large and is still attached.
I'm in two worlds as to whether to take her to the vet, on one hand it doesn't look to be bothering her and her mood and behaviors haven't changed. She doesn't like us touching it (as she flicks her ears whenever we try) however she doesn't get aggressive or defensive or run away when we do. Besides looking grotesque it doesn't seem to be causing her any grief so given that she's 16 years old, I'm a little hesitant to take her to the vet as the consultation alone will cost $120 and my assumption is that they'll want to do some skin samples and a bunch of testing which will be both invasive and costly. My expectation is that it's harmless and most likely her body just 'over healing', the scab just feels like a typical hard scab however if anyone can offer any suggestions as to what it might be and/or whether it were serious, then absolutely happy to get the vet to check it out.
Does anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks
