Sticky Discharge, Ear

[Ann & Sister]

Sister is newly diagnosed with diabetes and began Lantus injections Friday. Yesterday I noticed thick crusty stuff at the bottom of her ear. I washed it off thinking it was wet food. This morning it formed again. Just had a chat with the chewy vet because others are not available today and she scared me. She said the eardrums might have burst or she could have a brain tumor. Tried to get her into ER an hour away and they are turning away people tonight. Any advice? Thank you. Since she's not eating much, the chewy vet advised to skip her one unit Lantus injection this evening.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I am sorry no one has got back to you sooner. I think the vet told you the worst case scenarios......there are other less serious reasons why a cat has an ear discharge.

I would take her to the vet in the morning and get him to look in her ears. She may just need ear drops or an antibiotic.

As far as skipping the dose of insulin......and with Sister not eating.....I would definitely get the vet so see why this is happening. It is not good to skip doses of insulin if at all possible and if there is a possible infection and your cat is not eating....there is the possibility of ketones forming in the urine so please do ask the vet to check for ketones. Sister may need something for nausea as well.

You might like to tell us what dose of Lantus Sister is on and if you are home testing the blood glucose.

 

[Ann & Sister]

Thanks for responding. Sister is on 1 unit 2x a day. I did skip the dose last night and this morning. I am not home testing. Not set up for that and her vet will do the checking after one week. The online vet I chatted with has 2 diabetic cats so she is knowledgeable enough to say that if Sister did not eat at least half of a normal meal, insulin would be a bad idea.
I have an emergency vet appt. at a clinic I have never been to this morning. I want to get antibiotics into Sister to see if an inner ear infection or URI is the cause for the eating issue. Once she feels better, the insulin can resume.

 

[Emily R]

Hi, Ann! I was looking around for resources today on ear infections and I stumbled upon your post. I hope Sister's ear infection is doing well! I noticed something you said that I wanted to talk a little about. You mentioned that you don't do home testing. I want to warn you... that may be he most dangerous choice you could make. Without testing, if Sister's pancreas starts working again (quite possible given the timeline of her diagnosis and also the number of cats who have successfully gone into remission with certain treatments), she could be headed for a dangerous (possibly fatal) hypoglycemic episode. I don't want to alarm or upset you, but I do want to make sure you have all the information. I'm going to give you a couple of links. First, Chewy's story. (Please be forewarned-- Chewy's story is very sad.) The second is Baby's story. Testing has saved most of our cats from hypoglycemia many times. I urge you to purchase a human meter and test at least twice daily before you give Sister her shots. We're happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

[Lisa and Witn (GA)]

Another reason to home test is that if Sister has an infection that can also contribute to higher glucose numbers. As the infection is cleared using antibiotics, glucose levels may drop. By not knowing what her level is at the time of her shot, she may become hypoglycemic if she is too low and you give insulin. Hypoglycemia is very dangerous and can be deadly. Home testing is the best tool to prevent it.

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

A vet from Chewy actually made a possible brain tumor diagnosis over the phone? That is beyond irresponsible.