Is it only the Chinese who have specialised ear cleaning shovels? They are tiny metal spoon shaped objects specifically designed for cleaning out ears. Works a hell of a lot better than Q tips. Do these not exist anywhere else?
I just wish they made Q-tips with more cotton on the ends… it’s like they cheap out. Too much Q and not enough tip.
I always have to unravel the ends a bit to puff them up before use.
I Qtip my ears daily after I shower, otherwise the water in there drives me absolutely batty. Just yesterday, I almost shoved a Qtip through my ear, when my sweetie walked in behind me and startled me while I was cleaning. Today, to prevent a recurrence of this incident, I faced the door while I had Qtips in my ears. 
I did have a doctor once tell me he knew I used Qtips from the scratches in my ears. He mentioned that “nothing smaller than your elbow” thing.
I rarely have much earwax, but Qtips are my usual solution if I do. Sometimes bobby pins, if it seems to have gotten thick before I noticed it. So far, no problems.
And I also love the feeling.
I used to have a cat that suffered from ear mites. I would put the medicine in his ears and he didn’t like it a whole helluva lot, but he tolerated it.
I was Q-tipping my own ears one day and had a brilliant thought concerning the cat. Grabbed a fresh Q-tip, grabbed the cat, started cleaning his ears. The reaction was not exactly what I anticipated. Intense purring, body trembling, tongue running in and out, eyes closed and drooling. When I started on the other ear, I got the same results, plus the cat climaxed on my leg.
That cat was a Q-tip addict for the rest of his life.
There is so much that can be done with this, I don’t know where to start.
Once, after getting my hair cut, a small piece of hair made it into my ear canal. For several hours it found a place along side of the vagus nerve and caused it to be hyper stimulated. I went to the emergency room (at the Holy Cross, when it was still a hospital). Once the staff stopped laughing they got the hair out of my ear and saved me from more gut renching pain.
Was this cat a whole male, or neutered?
I’ve heard that vets use a cotton swab to stimulate queens in heat, so they’ll go out of heat. Now we know what cotton swabs are REALLY for…they’re sexual aids for cats!