Ear News

Yesterday was Bitty's appointment at the kitty dermatologist. I totally didn't know they had those, but yep, they do. It seems mostly dogs go to dermatology vets, but Bitty still got great treatment. In fact, the mass in her ear that we were worried could be a polyp or deep infection (or worse)? Turned out to be a mass of hardened ear wax! (There was some long, multi-syllable words that the doctor used to say what it was but ultimately it boiled down to hardened ear wax attached to ear ear.)

It took some wax-softening drops and three ear flushes to get it out, but the wax came out leaving a sparkling ear with no ear drum issues. Yay! The doctor showed us the ball o' wax after it was removed and it was HUGE. I mean, I'd think it was big if it came out of a human ear. To have come out of a five-pound kitty's ear? ENORMOUS. There was a small amount of blood on the part of the wax ball, which was what was visible, and I think that made it look non-wax enough that our regular vet was thrown off.

But yes, good news! No polyp, no billowing ear drum, no spreading of last month's tumor. Ear wax!

Of course, the bad news is that Bitty has a bit of a yeast infection in her right ear again. Dr. dermatology man said that was most likely a reaction from some environmental allergen and is why she gets ear infections all the time. So we've got some drops that she'll be on for ever and ever (if they work) to see if we can eliminate the reoccurring infections.

Not the most fun outcome - Bitty certainly doesn't handle ear drops well - but I'd much rather take regular ear dropping over all the bad things the ear wax could have been, so I think it is a good trade off.