On Thursday my mother called me and asked for help with my brother's cat that she was attempting to care for while he was on holiday. When I got there, I saw something unbelievable: the poor cat's ear had swelled up like a balloon and he had what is called an ear haematoma.
Tommy cat was taken to a vet before my brother left and the swelling had been drained and the cat sent home with instructions to keep pricking the ear and draining it. My mother had been trying to do so but needless to say, poor Tommy didn't appreciate this and had been hiding under the bed and not eating for days. She had gotten him to eat for the first time that morning.
When I got there he came out from under the bed, allowed me to drain his ear and I fed him and gave him cat painkillers. I wasn't happy about the situation at all and told them that he needed to see a vet again. That night, I asked her not to feed him in the morning and I would call my vet and ask if she would perform surgery. Of course, someone went ahead and fed him that morning but I spoke to my vet and she said that it wasn't an emergency and that I could continue giving him painkillers if necessary and surgery could be booked for the coming week but that we shouldn't try and drain his ear again as we ran the risk of introducing bacteria and causing an abscess. Tommy has been much happier since then and eating so he has been left alone for now although I will make sure that he is taken for surgery next week.
Ear haematomas are caused by injury to the cartilage in a cat's ear and the swelling is a blood blister which will eventually subside if left untreated and the cat will then develop a "cauliflower ear". Surgery involves draining the blister and stitching the ear so that the ear skin reattaches to the cartilage which reduces the swelling and deformation of the ear. This is a good idea because a cat has difficulty cleaning a deformed ear and excessive scratching and shaking his ear makes it more likely that he will get another haematoma.
Hopefully something can be done to improve his ear so that this doesn't recur.
Poor Tommy! I have seen old farm cats with ‘cauliflower ear’ before, but never had any idea what it actually was. Thank your for the info. As a cat owner it’s good to know that sort of stuff.
Yeah, outside cats can get it from fighting. I have not seen this before either
Poor Tommy ...
Sorry for animals, they can not even complain ...
I wish that he quickly recovered !!!
Good luck!
So long as they take him in next week, he'll get better
It will be great!
Tommy is blessed to have someone like you around who cares for the orphans. We have a cat that hangs out in front veranda. He's new and Andrea has named him Tom.
He's lucky to have found you, is he relatively tame?
We haven't been able to pet him, but he doesn't run when we go near him. There is now another cat that has started to hang around. She is very odd looking. I believe she is a Siamese mix. I also think she was abandoned as she seems to be conflicted over wanting to eat or be petted. We can't pick her up though. She turns into a monster instantly if we try.
I have heard of cauliflower ear in cats, but have never actually witnessed it, nor had any real understanding of what it actually is. Appreciate the info... good to file "in the back pocket," just in case...
=^..^=
This was a first for me, too - I couldn't believe what I saw
Interesting. I had no idea cats could get this.
Me neither
Poor Tommy. Glad to see you are on top of this situation.
All I can do now is bug his humans to do something about it
All I can do now
Is bug his humans to do
Something about it
- nikv
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
Poor Tommy! I've never seen a cat have this before, so it may be a little different with cats, but one of my dogs, Marley, has had it a few times. In his case, the vet said to leave him alone and it will slowly disappear, which is exactly what happened. It looks so uncomfortable for the poor things, my vet said that if you drain it, then it just fills up again, and sometimes surgery can be problematic, but like I said, it might be different with cats. I hope he gets better soon.
Did the bottom of Marley's ear fill up? I'm thinking that its less problematic for dogs due to gravity and in cats, the opening to the ear canal may end up being blocked. I'll hear more this week
No, it was the whole top part of the ear, like a balloon. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to hear with that ear when it was like that, because the whole thing was so swollen. But I think you might be right, dogs and cats are very different so definitely take your vets advice. Hope he gets better soon.
I am sorry for Tommy's case and I appreciate your information regarding the swelling of the ear. It is important to know that it can occur, even without insect bites.
The care and love for pets is wonderful and everything will be fine.
I am trying to adopt a new cat.
Greetings, @nikv.
I hope you find a good cat to adopt
Tommy needs rest, fresh fish and cuddles
So he does, he's so sweet. Despite the trauma of the week, all he wanted was to be cuddled
Congratulations @nikv! You have completed the following achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPOh no! I hope Tom will recover soon without a hitch. I'm glad your mum had called you for help.
Now it's up to his owners. I'm not optimistic :(
😿
I've seen dogs that have suffered this. I don't know what they do about it now but many years ago the area would have been drained and a button sewed to the ear to put pressure on the two layers of tissue and keep it from filling with fluid again.
I think the button method is still used but cats ears are too small for that although that's basically what vets do with sutures