Cats - ear tumors - help appreciated

netman

Folks, I don't know if anyone has any experience with this, but there might be some vets here on boards...

Our cat came back yesterday evening after her walk all scared and panicked, she's only been out half an hour or an hour, and her ears were down, tail low, so I thought she was in a fight.

Then she started scratching at her right ear and shaking her head, making a horrible noise like two little marbles clunking inside. I had a look at her ear and I could see a tiny bit of blood splatter inside.

We brought her to the vet this morning and got some pills and ear drops for her, but he suspects it's a tumor in her ear. We won't know until the infection clears up a bit and they can do a full examination while she's sedated, but it just doesn't make sense to me.

She was fine the whole day, granted she scratches sometimes and shakes her head, but it's not that often and there wasn't this noise. Then she goes out for a little while and suddenly she won't let us go anywhere near her right ear, and she's scratching it a lot and shaking her head a lot and it's making this terrible noise.

Is it possible that tumors can cause this? I always thought they would take a long time to form and that the effects would build up gradually, not that the symptoms could come about so suddenly

Sigma Force

Ear gunk can cover up any sign of tumours and they can come on fairly quick sometimes. Ear tumours are pretty common even in non white cats so it's important for anyone with cats to check their ears regularly.
It might be nothing though the vet might just be preparing you it could be an absess or just very bad infection. If it is a tumour they will remove it and send it off usually they are benign sadly sometimes they are not but if caught in time may not have spread.
With TLC and keeping the ears clean cats recover well after the op.
Anything with the ears can be painful poor little thing, fingers crossed it's just something minor that's just been irritated. Let us know how you get on.

The Sweeper

If it's physically in her ear, could be a lot of things. Keep her calm and on her meds until the infection clears and they can have a proper look-see to identify it. If you're not satisfied with how she is - e.g. if she appears to be in a lot of pain, or very irritated, or you're finding it difficult to administer the pills and the drops, call the vet and press for a revisit and some more suggestions on what to do with her in the short term.