Topic: Help! hair loss on ears - UPDATE - SAW VET (Read 3831 times)

Janeyk · « **Reply #22 on:** May 17, 2009, 21:58:48 PM »

Quote from: Helen+Sassy on May 16, 2009, 22:58:56 PM

Well...2nd vet visit went well, Sassy's gums are healing properly however the nurse gave her the second antibiotic (Antirobe) and again, EXACTLY 2 hours after administration Sassy threw-up I rang the vets and they swapped her meds for Synulox

that's what my vet prescribes if they can't take antirobe, glad her gums are alot better now, hope her ears improve too.

Tiggy's Mum · « **Reply #21 on:** May 17, 2009, 16:24:55 PM »

Glad her gums are coming along nicely, hopefully her ears will follow suit

Sorry to hear about your friends cat

RIP Pascha, safe and sound at the Bridge until your Mum is ready to collect you xx

Helen+Sassy · « **Reply #20 on:** May 16, 2009, 22:58:56 PM »

Well...2nd vet visit went well, Sassy's gums are healing properly

however the nurse gave her the second antibiotic (Antirobe) and again, EXACTLY 2 hours after administration Sassy threw-up

I rang the vets and they swapped her meds for Synulox (which I had to pay £10 for - pretty miffed about that having spent over £300 with that vet already!) and she has now finished a 5-day couse of 2 tabs per day with no problems - yipee! We've been away at Center Parcs for the week and only got back yesterday so Mum has taken care of Sassy and administered the last few pills for us.

All we have to contend with now is a final dental check-up on Monday, fingers crossed!

Just one thing though: the ear baldness is back with a vengeance; today she scratched both ears raw and drew blood, I've bathed them both with wet cotton wool and got some Johnsons cat/dog tea tree skin cream to help them heal and hopefully deal with the itchiness. I really hope the vet was right and it is just a seasonal allergy, a costly skin condition would just not be funny at this stage! If this gets much worse I will be putting one of those funnel collars on so that she can't make them sorer.

sixfurballs: That is interesting, Sass was last 'frontlined' 3 weeks ago so maybe the scratching is some kind of reaction shes developed to it, I'll keep her off of it for a while and see what happens.

Off-topic I had some bad kitty news today: a ex-school friend of mine has/had two really sweet long-haired kitties, brother and sister who I've known for yeeeaaars now, the boy was hit by a car last night and killed. To make matters worse it was on my friend's birthday too, poor Pascha

I hope Jasmine (his sister) doesn't pine too much, its very sad news.

sixfurballs · « **Reply #19 on:** May 08, 2009, 15:06:46 PM »

Sassy is gorgeous. Glad to hear got through the dental work. Must be frustrating about previous vet.

I changed from Frontline (which I had used for years) to Advocate last year as one of my black cats developed skin problems and fur sucking and my vet thought he might be developing allergy to the Frontline. My vet much prefers the advocate.

Millys Mum · « **Reply #18 on:** May 07, 2009, 19:37:15 PM »

I assume antirobe? They are quite irritating so best mixed into food or washed down with a syringe of water to make sure its reached the stomach, this applies to all pills really as they can cause problems in the oesophagus

Helen+Sassy · « **Reply #17 on:** May 07, 2009, 11:07:56 AM »

Thanks for the messages guys

Poor sass was sick this morning, Matt gave her the first antibiotic capsule at 6am and she was sick at 8.30 so I hope she at least absorbed SOME of it! She went and sat quietly under the bed and wouldn't come out but she seems OK now sitting next to the laptop watching 'This Morning' with me, shes just a bit quiet (to be fair her mouth wound is probably a bit sore by now so I can't blame her). Its the vet check-up at 9am tomorrow so I've got to try and get her into that darned pet carrier again

I might take tomorrow's anti-biotic with me and ask him to do it while we're there, just to save 'attacking her' twice in one day!

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #16 on:** May 06, 2009, 15:33:42 PM »

I am pleased that Sassy is sorted and am sure the insurance will pay out with the vet saying what she has

Dawn F · « **Reply #15 on:** May 06, 2009, 11:24:28 AM »

one of my friends vet has scrapped a few things from the notes so that my friend can now take out insurance, if you get a nice vet they will try and help

Janeyk · « **Reply #14 on:** May 06, 2009, 11:21:08 AM »

awww bless her, glad shes ok now, she's gorgeous btw

Mark · « **Reply #13 on:** May 06, 2009, 11:16:22 AM »

Glad Sassy has been sorted out

If the vet is backing you, the insurance should pay out no problem.

Dawn F · « **Reply #12 on:** May 06, 2009, 11:07:28 AM »

sorry about your wedding dress fund

hope the insurance pays up

Helen+Sassy · « **Reply #11 on:** May 06, 2009, 10:48:58 AM »

We went to the vets yesterday, sassy is now fine but now I feel queasy, lol, heres the story...

I took her in for a general poke and prod as we were registered with a different vet before. Vet looks in Sassys mouth & mentions her missing upper right canine. I say yes, our old vet noticed that but he said it would be fine and the gum would probably absorb the root in time. Vet keeps prodding and finds the beginnings of tartar build up on the same side at the back. Vet looks at ears and is flummoxed by the localilty of the baldness and lack of wax or scratching. Vet says Sassy needs to be knocked out for a scale and polish (ohhhh great thinks me: Matt's Mum's cat Polly had that a year ago and it cost £200), also the root needs to be removed as it may be causing her constant low-level pain and could cause an absess in future; at this point I suddenly feel very angry with our last vet, especially if Sass has been in pain with it for all that time, I also hope he didn't write it in her notes because that means I will be unable to claim on the pet insurance for the extraction.

Heres the best bit...a £307 bill: almost all of the wedding dress fund I'd worked so hard to save up

Vet says pet insurance should pay out and I should attempt a claim as this is not routine dental work, it counts as accidental damage to the tooth by external means (I checked my policy small print, shes right!). I have my fingers firmly crossed as a claim would mean that I only pay out £100 instead of £307, the vet seems to think I have a good chance and she says she will ensure that her notes mention that the damage looks like the result of an accident and, in her professional opinion, the root MUST come out.

Sassy had surgery yesterday afternoon, I got her back at dinner time with a recommendation that she probably wouldn't eat. WRONG! lol! She was immediately round our feet in the kitchen thumping her bandaged front paw against our legs for attention, I gave her some chopped up bits of our roast lamb for being a good girl. She seems fine today, her usual self EXCEPT she exceptionally 'rubby' and seems super happy; it would seem that the root was causing her discomfort all along, I feel really guilty but at the end of the day our old vet said to leave the root in because it would be fine and I trusted him because hes the expert. I'm so angry and will be writing a letter to our old practice after I've had a decision on my claim.

The vet did a skin scrape from the back of one ear while Sassy was in for the day, she also observed Sassy to see if she was scratching (she isn't; I already knew that) she says there are definately no mites. She thinks its some kind of mild allergy and we should keep an eye on it & make an appointment if it worsens or we get other symptoms.

Today Sassy is fine: shes got a spiky neck where the vet put some Advocate on her (apparently its better than frontline, which I currently use, but I've never heard of it

), a bald bit on her front leg and a bald bit on one ear from the skin scrape, bless!

Groggy Sassy when she got home yesterday:

Pinkbear (Julie) · « **Reply #10 on:** April 25, 2009, 09:23:52 AM »

Earmites live deep inside the ear. You wouldn't really see them at all without an ear scope.

A tip to help see if puss may have them is to rub the base of the ear fairly hard - underneath where the ear joins the neck. If puss appears aggrevated and starts desperately trying to scratch, you can expect there to be earmites.

Helen+Sassy · « **Reply #9 on:** April 25, 2009, 09:00:47 AM »

Are mites visible to the human eye if you look really close or are they microscopic like dustmites?

Janeyk · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2009, 23:24:11 PM »

Byron's ears are half bald but she is really old

Pinkbear (Julie) · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2009, 18:47:38 PM »

Once you've ruled out Harvest Mites (and it is a tad early in the year for them) and Ring Worm, I'll have a fiver on it being Sunburn.

Millys Mum · « **Reply #6 on:** April 22, 2009, 19:27:40 PM »

Harvest mites can also be a pain, i hear of cats suffering alot of the year with them

A vet check will rule out if its just hair loss or something else

Helen+Sassy · « **Reply #5 on:** April 22, 2009, 19:18:26 PM »

Quote from: Millys Mum on April 22, 2009, 18:42:37 PM

Have you checked inside her ears? A waxy build up and bald areas could point to earmites

I've had a look and its quite dark in there so quite hard to see...but it looks clear; both ears. Tiggy had ear mites a couple of years ago and would scratch endlessly, I haven't seen such behaviour with Sassy; she will scratch an ear every now and then but no more so than when any cat normally has a quick scratch.

Millys Mum · « **Reply #4 on:** April 22, 2009, 18:42:37 PM »

Have you checked inside her ears? A waxy build up and bald areas could point to earmites

Gill (sneakiefeline) · « **Reply #3 on:** April 22, 2009, 13:09:45 PM »

I have two birmans one a seal point with lovely velvet ears and the other a blue point with totally bald ears! He is not bothered and they apparently have been bald for years and since before I had him. The only thing I do is help him when he has been lying on an ear and the top turns over and gets stuck, so I help very very gentle to unstick it.

Its not physically stuck but he cant shake it out and only has three legs too so cant help himself in that area.

Both birmans come from the same litter.

Dawn F · « **Reply #2 on:** April 22, 2009, 08:42:41 AM »

my black cat always had bald bits on his ears! the vet wasn't concerned at all

Helen+Sassy · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2009, 22:58:56 PM »

I have a conundrum for you...Over the past couple of weeks i've noticed on TWO occasions that Sassy's ears have had bald patches on them, I spoke to my fiance and he says he rubbed her ear the other night and all of the little short hairs on the back (outside of her ear) just fell out with ease. I had a poke myself and hes right, the hairs just come right off!

She is 7.5 years old, we've had her almost 2 years and she has never had any health problems, she is plain black so I was wondering if sun exposure could be a cause? The skin on the ear is not red, it looks completely normal, just a bit bald! She is generally a mostly indoorsy cat but she does go out into the garden for an hour of a morning and evening, occasionally she spends the whole day outside, maybe twice a week. She is treated with veterinary strength Frontline once a month and has been on it for almost 2 years. She is not scratching at all and the fur on the rest of her body is absolutely fine, no dandruff or anything. She has not had any recent dietary changes and eats Royal Canin dry food as her main diet, some mornings I give her 1 pouch of Tesco premium chunks in jelly for a bit of variety, she drinks water only.

I was planning on taking her for a general health & dental check-up in May as I will be having a week off of work but if anyone can give me some insight into what may be the problem that would be great!

Author Topic: Help! hair loss on ears - UPDATE - SAW VET (Read 3831 times)