Chronic itchy ears - can't use tresaderm anymore

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Rachel & Gus

Member
Is there anything that works for chronic ear problems? Gus and his sister both suffer from itchy ears. I've used tresaderm in the past with great results, but now that Gus is diabetic I can't use it because it raises his BG. They were diagnosed with yeast in the past, but the vet said the last time they were tested there wasn't any yeast. Who knows if they have yeast now.

I put Gus back on probiotics to see if that helps.

The vet has us using an ear wax softener followed by Epi-Otic. It helps a little, but not fully resolving the problem. She doesn't know that Zymox will do anything better to help the problem - which was one treatment I was considering.

Gus is on a grain free wet diet and has been on venison, rabbit and chicken - nothing has helped so I don't think it's food allergies. I know he has allergies to pollen, but the ear problems are year round.

Does anything work????? This problem is driving us all insane :(

Thank you for any suggestions/advice.
 
My Saima had chronic ear problems her whole life. I would suggest that it might still be allergies if your cats are getting multiple protein sources. It used to drive me nuts how some of the foods marketed for "allergies" often contain chicken in addition to the other proteins. I have heard that chicken is a common allergen for cats. I have no idea why that would be (I always figured cats should be pretty well adapted to eat birds of various kinds), but that's what I've heard.

Unfortunately I think if you were talking to my vet right now, she would say you should get the infection cleared up, then do a feeding trial of a protein that the cat has never had before, which could be tricky since your cats have already had venison and rabbit. Duck is a possibility, though too rich for some cats; or I'm not sure if turkey is too similar to chicken to be of use, but that is another one that comes to mind. Or beef if they don't have issues with that (again, many cats apparently do). Although Tresaderm seemed to work best for Saima, she had also been prescribed Otomax and Mometamax over the years by various vets. There may have been others, but those are the ones that come to mind. I guess you would have to research those (I remember being very leery of Mometamax the first time she took it because I found some information online indicating it was only approved for dogs and could be harmful to cats--but now I can't find any of that information anywhere, so maybe I just imagined it) but there are non-steroid antifungal ear drops out there.

I have also heard that a raw diet can help with skin and allergy problems, if that is something that you are in a position to consider. There are pre-made raw diets out there (such as Primal) that you can get in a variety of proteins, if making your own raw is daunting to consider (it was for me). Of course those also have more ingredients/potential allergens in them than homemade, so that is another factor.

I have to be honest and say that we never really got to the bottom of Saima's allergy problems before she unfortunately had to be put to sleep due to other causes, but I thought I could at least pass along what I've heard from our vets and learned over the years. Oddly I think she had her longest stretch without ear infection symptoms when she started eating dry regular Felidae (we didn't know then that dry food is bad for them). I have no idea why that would be.

Good luck!!
 
Jennifer has already eloquently stated what I wanted to say. So I will just reiterate that chicken can be an allergy. I opted to do an allergy test on my girl, Abigail, and she is very allergic to chicken. And it can be hard to find foods that don't have it somewhere in the ingredient list. I use Mometamax on her ears and it really seems to help.
 
Thank you. I just sent an email to my vet inquiring about Mometamax and about possible allergies to protein.

His sister eats a combination of dry prescription food and canned Fancy Feast Salmon. Her ears aren't as bad, but she also doesn't have as many autoimmune issues as Gus. The dry food does have chicken in it I think - I will have to look at the ingredients. Yes I know dry is bad, but she is a more difficult cat when it comes to food and I'm not having another cat end up with hepatic lipsidosis.
 
For your civvie who eats dry, the Natural Balance food is fairly widely available and comes in single-protein formulas. I probably wouldn't feed it now if I could avoid it, since it's dry and probably super-high in carbs even for dry, but Saima liked it and I think it's at least higher-quality than the similar Hills food sold at the vet's. If you have to feed dry, that might be an option. It does also come in canned if she will eat that, but again the carbs are probably pretty high.

The other problem I noticed with some of the single-protein foods (again maybe related to the richness of the particular protein, not sure) was soft stools. I think Saima did pretty much OK in that department on the Natural Balance. She also really liked the Now! brand senior formula food and did not have tummy issues on it. However, I think it's sky-high in carbs and probably not as ideal for trying to figure out an allergy problem, because as I remember it contains turkey, duck, and salmon.
 
Thank you Jenifer. Yes - soft stools have been a problem with the rabbit so it's off the menu for the moment.

Carma is eating much less of the dry these days but still wants it sometimes so I will look into your suggestion. There are grain free dry foods but I don't think they are single protein and she isn't crazy about them :(

The acupuncture vet I'm taking Gus to said it's too difficult to play around with his food because of the IBD and pancreatitis. She feels it's more important to keep his digestive issues under control and for his stools to be solid. Her feeling is to treat the ear problem as a secondary issue and to find a medication that works without raising the BG. She also did some acupuncture points for ear inflammation.
 
Wow--you are dealing with so much--I can't imagine IBD and pancreatitis on top of diabetes and allergies. Best of luck to you and your kitties. I'm sure you will find a solution that works for all of you. Gus is such a sweet name for a kitty too. Hugs to all of you. :YMHUG:
 
Thanks Jennifer. We will take all the hugs and luck we can get!
I guess we do have a lot of ailments to deal with. When everything is running smoothly then Gus seems like a normal cat so I often forget how many underlying issues he has.
I'm going to write a post about the acupuncture eventually. We are only on week number two so it is too early to tell. I have to say though, Gus seems to have had an improvement in energy since we started. The vet also noticed when we went for acupuncture last night that he seemed more energetic. I hope he continues on this path. I'm really focused on quality of life for him and his sister Carma.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top