Why might a cat have no ears ?

December 22, 2006 4:44 AM

I met a cat in the street tonight and didn't have any ears. I was walking down a quiet street and saw a white cat sitting in the middle of the street, it didn't move as I approached. I got to abaout 10 ft and stopped, and called to it. It came over and was clearly not afraid. It did not have any ears, it had holes where ears would be and the holes were clean, no flaps or raggedy bits. We bonded easy enough, I was able to lift the creature onto my lap, it was purring. It was skinny and I think under fed, certainly my own cats which are lean, are much fuller in body. Why might a cat have no ears ? Is it an act of malice or surgery ? Disese or cruelty ? Birth defect ? It made me very sad.
posted by matholio to pets & animals (18 comments total)

Maybe they are into ear biting


posted by apple at 4:57 AM on December 22, 2006

wasn't trying to be a smart ass. the link didn't show up. try this:
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/37343
posted by apple at 4:58 AM on December 22, 2006

From just dicking around on Google, there seems to be a number of mentions about ear surgery when the cat has polyps or cancer.
If the cat is a stray, maybe it got into a fight, was found by someone, had the ears treated and sent it back out onto the street?

(The fact that it was purring might not have been a good thing. Cats have been known to purr when they are in pain. I heard it described somewhere (maybe here, maybe on LJ) that purring is the equivalent of "I need a friend now" or something to that extent.)
posted by sperose at 5:05 AM on December 22, 2006

Seeing as it was white, I'd say the most likely reason to take his ears would be to remove cancerous growths. So sad to be sure, but possibly alive because of it.
posted by The Monkey at 5:09 AM on December 22, 2006

Here in frosty Canada, it usually means they froze off, from being out in below zero weather, and it's fairly common with strays. However, looking at your profile and assuming you are in Sydney, Australia, not Sydney, Nova Scotia, that seems unlikely.
posted by teg at 6:00 AM on December 22, 2006

White cats are much more likely to get skin cancer than non-white cats, especially on the ears. So, they were probably removed either as a preventitive measure or because it had skin cancer, like this kitty.

It doesn't sound like a feral cat to me: it's probably a domestic cat that's just out on the prowl. If it was feral, there's no way it would have let you pick it up. So it sounds like it has a home, and that it has had skin cancer at soem point, but has been treated.
posted by baggers at 6:54 AM on December 22, 2006

If it's an older cat hyperthyroidism is also a common condition - even with medication and treatment it can make them look like skinny underfed cats.
posted by dog food sugar at 7:01 AM on December 22, 2006

I met a cat with one ear once - it had been completely bitten off by fights with other cats. Life on the streets is hard - I hope you took that cat to a shelter or took care of it yourself.
posted by agregoli at 8:46 AM on December 22, 2006

When living in Korea we had loads of stray cats around. One could tell the younger cats from the ones older than a year by their tails. Mostly if they survived the winter they got frostbite in their tails and ears and they would be tail/earless come spring.

On preview, Sidney, Australia eh? Probably not frostbite. Unless my ignorance of Australia extends to their horrible blizzards...

Uh, did the cat speak Korean?

Um, yeah.
posted by Chickenjack at 9:41 AM on December 22, 2006

As baggers said above, white cats in Australia are at high risk of skin cancer due to the lack of pigment in their skin. It's not uncommon to see one with its ears off.
posted by Coaticass at 11:41 AM on December 22, 2006

A friend of mine has a cat called Hammy with no ears. He was rescued from the SPCA: apparently he had had such a bad case of ear mites as a kitten he had chewed/scratched them off.
posted by doublesix at 12:04 PM on December 22, 2006

Ok, how you chew your own ears off, I don't know ...
posted by doublesix at 12:06 PM on December 22, 2006

I vote skin cancer too based on the cat's colour and your location.

And you have no reason to think that cat was a stray so don't take it anywhere. I'm still pissed that I had to get mine back from the vet last year because of some meddling neighbour. Yes the cat was thin, he had a chronic health condition which we were treating and had totally under control but the vet gave him the wrong food and made him sick, then I had to pay the vet for doing so. So yeah, the cat is clean and affectionate so leave it alone.
posted by shelleycat at 1:02 PM on December 22, 2006

My neighbour's white cat had to have both ears removed due to skin cancer - he has the tidy little holes you describe, but otherwise he's healthy and happy. (This is in the SE of the UK, not a place best known for blazing year round sunshine so I guess that white cats are really susceptible).
posted by boosh at 1:28 PM on December 22, 2006

I saw a feral cat in my alley with no ears once. It was pretty obvious in that case though that it was from fighting.

That is very sad. I don't suppose there's anyway you could help it?

I t might belong to someone but if so they really ought to put a collar on it. It's being underfed however makes me doubt that seriously.
posted by Jess the Mess at 7:15 PM on December 22, 2006

It doesn't have to be cancer. One day my old cat had a bloated ear. We took him to the vet and it turned out a vain had popped between the two layers of skin of his ear and filled it with blood. He didn't seem to be bothered by it.

She explained that this happens quite often if a cat has an itch inside his ear (it turned out he had parasites in there) and shakes his head a lot. We wondered what would have happened if we hadn't taken care of it and she said that the blood would have clotted and the ear would have shriveled and fallen off at one point. And told us that for example in Rome there are a lot of cats that miss one or two ears because of this. Not painful but obviously not a good thing for the cat as it's even easier for stuff to get in there, and not a pretty sight.

She drained it and sent us back home. He now has one floppy ear (left ear of cat on the left). It's extremely cute.

Oh and obviously we felt quite guilty for not noticing the bugs and have been rigorously been cleaning ears ever since.
posted by Skyanth at 1:14 AM on December 23, 2006 [1 favorite]

(Also it should of course be "vein" and not "vain").
posted by Skyanth at 1:16 AM on December 23, 2006

We have a white cat (Melbourne, Australia, her name is Sprocket) and were advised by a vet to apply sunscreen to her ears in an effort to prevent sunburn and eventual cancer in her little ears. There's not guarantee though, and should she develop skin cancer (likely I'm guessing, seeing as how eager she is to wash off the sunscreen) she may need to have her ears removed.

Apparently white cats are more susceptible because of their fairer complexion ;) and because they reflect more heat than black cats, and are therefore more likely to lie around in the sun for longer.

I once met a tortoiseshell kitty with no ears on a community farm and he was definitely a happy cat. Like dogs, I have a feeling that cats don't dwell on superficialities as much as humans tend to. ;)
posted by eek at 3:03 AM on December 23, 2006