I came home today to find my cat acting very frightened and hiding from me part of the time, trying to get my attention the rest of the time. Sitting at one point facing a chair I never use. One ear drooped.
A short while ago, she’s in my face, trying to glom onto me and be as close in my face as possible for attention and love, but at the same time hissing at me. So I gotta figure she’s upset about something or hurt. She fakes scratching at her right ear, the one that is drooping, but like she doesn’t want to actually touch it. I check it out.
HOLY SHIT, IT IS INFLATED LIKE A BALLOON!
Her outer ear is inflated exactly like a balloon. It is very sensitive to the touch. All I can figure is that we’ve had a few billion wasps outside the apartment lately, in the usual fall feeding frenzy mode, and occasionally, one gets in through the edges of the window screens. One of them probably stung her on the ear.
I can’t afford to take a day off from work, and I don’t have the money to take her to the vet. Tonight I’ll be doing some research, and tomorrow at lunch time I’ll call a vet who specializes in cats to see what I can do.
Wow. I have never seen anything like this. I can see why she’s upset.
Yikes! Are you sure it’s not a hematoma? (pics could be “ick” to some) I’ve seen them more often in dogs, but sometimes cats. It could be from an ear infection or itchy waxy ear that caused a lot of scratching or head shaking, which can break a blood vessel in the ear and cause it to fill like a balloon with blood. If it doesn’t burst, it’s possible it could re-absorb, but it’s mighty painful in the meantime, and the ear will be weird and wrinkly after it heals.
In the meantime, if it’s really swollen and you don’t think it’s filled with blood, then an antihistamine could be helpful for her - if it’s a bite or sting. You can’t give any pain meds, but Benadryl at 1mg per pound could be OK. So if she’s a 10 pound cat, 10 milligrams would be OK, and if you wanted to split a 25mg tablet, 12.5mg would be safe if she’s at least 10 pounds. Do be aware that instead of drowsy and slightly relieved, though, that cats can have the same adverse reaction to Benadryl that people can have, and it could make her hyper instead. It might be worth the risk, though.
I hope she gets better, or you can find a way to get her to the vet!
Looking up a wasp sting treatment, I see this - “Take a cotton ball and apply vinegar (white or apple) or pickle juice to the area. This will reduce swelling.” I don’t think there is any danger with treating a cat with vinegar or pickle juice - might help, probably won’t hurt.
A number of sites said Baking Soda for bee stings, and a few said this for both.
So what I did was to take an anti-histamine pill and grind it up in my mortar, add about 3x that much Baking Soda and some water to make a milky liquid, then applied with a tissue to her ear. She reacted like it stung like hell and went into hiding. This morning she won’t even come out, so I can’t do it again. But I have some white vinigar, so I’ll try that at lunch time today and see how that works.
Can you touch it? Does it feel fluid-filled or just swollen? My kitty had a hematoma last fall and hers required surgery to drain it. Get her in to the vet as quickly as you can.
She needs to see a vet, it could be a sting, it could be a hematoma, it could be an abscess. I would not give her anything orally with checking with a vet 1st - cats can react really oddly to things that are easily tolerated by humans and dogs.
Came home, cat basically went into hiding, she was hurting that much. Figured that I had to do something even with my finances.
Called cat specialist vet nearby, 4 minutes before they close. Get jackass not-doctor who goes on an on about how I need to get her into the emergency vet tonight, blah, blah, blah. I mention my financial state (bankruptcy completed in June) and limited funds and he makes out like it’s going to cost me several times what I can afford. Jackass.
Thought about if for a few minutes. Called Banfield (at Petsmart, which was open for another 55 minutes). “How fast can you be here?” Zipped over. Cat was totally cool in the carrier, unlike her usual routine of trying to destroy the thing from the inside to get out of it. Tells me how much pain she’s in. They looked over the cat, I explained my finances. Doc did the ear swab for free. No mites, but serious yeast and bacteria infection. They present me with a fee list totalling $206, then say they’ll knock off the $35 office visit. Works for me. I get my cone for Space Cat, my ear wash, my ear meds and the steroids for SheHulk Space Cat and step out to pay. “Oh, I made a mistake and took the office visit off twice. So rather than put it back on, I used Banfield Bucks, which is charity money. Your total is $140.55.”
They were totally awesome, totally polite, totally professional.
If she is prone to ear infections (my dog is) - vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in a syringe once or twice a week from here on out will save you $200 in vet bills. And keep the cone.
Thanks. I have the vinegar, I have the syringe. Will keep in mind once this is resolved.
Yeah, she’s always had “gooky ears”. I would wipe them out once in a while with a wet cloth or a tissue on the end of my finger, but that’s only getting the stuff outside the ear canal.
I had fostered a cat that had ear issues. While she was at the adoption center, one of the volunteers attempted to clean her ears (a very well-meaning thing to do, and the volunteer was a nurse, so we trusted her to do things like this). She ended up with 2 ruptured eardrums. Not a happy kitty. Once I took her home after she went to the vet, I only let the vet mess with her ears, I wouldn’t even clean the outsides with a wet wipe. Ask the vet if once this resolves it is prudent to clean her ears with the vinegar solution, I don’t want you to end up with more problems.
