How can I help my poor cat with sore ears? :(

September 23, 2023 6:35 AM

Perhaps 2 weeks ago my cat scratched patches of fur around her ears and cut both her ears. I put the lampshade thing on her head in a bid to shield her ears from her scratching but she still seemed to be troubled. I took her to the vet a week later who said no mites and that he didn't know what was going on.

He took £90 off me and gave us "Bravecto Spot on" to protect against fleas and parasites. I gave her the one off dose and she's back in the lampshade due to scratching. She is still troubled and sometimes shaking her head a bit. Otherwise ok - eating a bit less but probably cos of the shade.. she is eating, drinking, weeing, pooing. wandering about.. any ideas?

posted by tanktop to Pets & Animals (4 answers total)

Had a cat in which that was 100% a food allergy symptom. For her, it turned out to be beef in particular, and she did best on grain-free non-beef-containing foods, but of course allergies are specific.
posted by restless_nomad at 6:40 AM on September 23, 2023

This happened to our cat on one ear. The vet checked for mites but there were none (not surprising as we use a spot-on treatment every 3 months but still worth checking as you've done) and suggested it was probably an allergy caused by plant sap. She gave us some steroid cream to put on it which cleared up the redness and stopped our cat scratching the area, which then healed over a week or so and the fur grew back pretty quickly.

So maybe ask for some feline-specific steroid cream in case it's something similar?
posted by underclocked at 8:46 AM on September 23, 2023

It sounds like she might have pain instead of itching. At least in humans, ear pressure can be caused by allergies or an ear infection, or a lot of other things.

Cats will shake parts that are painful - my foster cat has teeth issues, and I noticed him shaking his head a lot after eating cold moist food -- like I would, since my teeth are sensitive to cold. He also licks his left front paw when it hurts (arthritis).
posted by amtho at 3:01 PM on September 23, 2023

It was food allergy for our baby guy too!
posted by fairlynearlyready at 2:41 AM on September 24, 2023