HELP!Pseudomonos ear infection!Advice needed please.

[lindac]

Angie,

thanks for your response, I am certainly going to do some research into ABs and like you say demand a referral if the vet cant come up with a solution. 

[lindac]

Teresa,

I will ask the vet if she can find a topical AB and I intend to try and find out for myself, but you would think that the vet should know what would be the best treatment to fight this with! All I have heard about so far is this Gentimicin which carrys a lot of risk.

Your words of hope are encouraging, if Suki could have periods of relief from it before it returned it wouldnt be so bad.

Its good to know that it isnt contagious.

Good Luck with fighting your lung infection, hopefully you will manage to beat it and stay out of hospital 

[Angiew]

There are many AB's around safe for cat use and sometimes a combination of 2 different types works where one doesn't.
If she's insured then demand a referral - thats what insurance is all about after all.

[lindac]

Gill.... I value your opinion, your right Sukis health should come first wether a specialist is in the area or not. I have rung the vet and am waiting for her to call me back. I will ask first what more she can do for Suki and if she cant suggest anything then I will insist on a referral to a specialist. Update..................... the vet cant call back tonight as she is doing an emergency op so will ring tomorrow.

I have complained to the vet on Sukis past treatment, ie the dental causing this infection and making her deaf but of course they wont admit to it being their fault. Nothing can convince me otherwise. Another vet I spoke to at another practice said that a lot of high pressure water is used in flushing the mouth when doing a dental and that is where I think Suki has caught this Pseudomonos which in turn has caused her deafness, Im sure I read that it is a water borne bacteria so Im linking the two facts.
 
Anyway all Im interested in now is getting rid of this infection so Suki can have some relief from the irritation, she and we can cope with her deafness. I cant help but feel that as this vet knows that I blame them that she is reluctant to advise any treatment for fear of anything else going wrong or maybe me finding out what has caused it, they have been very defensive and probably wish that I would just go away. Unfortunately all this has left me not trusting any vets and Im sticking with this one because I feel 'better the devil you know'!! Also the vet I use is a lovely person who I trust but unfortunately she wasnt the one who carried out Sukis dental, I have a strong feeling that if she had then Suki would be ok now. She has done two dentals on my other cat in the past without any problems.
I will only see her now and wont have anyone else at this practice treat my cats. Im only saying all this because I dont want you to think that I havnt asked questions.

Teresa should write a paper about it because I dont think this Pseudomonos is unusual in cats, having said that I was surprised when I did a search on this site and nothing came up, so maybe Im wrong in thinking that.   

[Teresa Pawcats]

Pseudomas is not a virus nor is it contagious. It is a bacteria that has lived on this planet longer than man, it will only attack previously damaged tissue and once affected you are always at risk of a recurrence, so keeping it at bay is the best you can hope for. There are antibiotics out there (which most will never have heard of) yes some carry risks but if your vet can find a topical one it will eliminate them.

I spent hours reading in the early days, there is no cure or at least only a temporary one till next time.
There is always hope its been in my lungs for 2 years, one of the reasons I spend so much time in hospital with pneumonia, but take heart there is quality of life inbetween. 

I really think your vet should have explained this to you properly.

[lindac]

Thank you Teresa for your response,
so sorry to hear about this awful bacteria affecting your lungs, I didnt realise that it could affect humans so badly!

Unfortunately I dont think there is a safe AB to fight this with, according to the vet, the Antibiotics known to work on it could cause
liver damage and blindness and I feel I cant take that risk with Suki, she has been through so much already, losing her hearing and all thats followed since then.

From what you have said it doesnt seem there is much hope for Suki, if they cant cure your infection Im thinking what hope is there for Suki, is it just a question of keeping it at bay? Im also worried for my other two cats and could they catch it from her??
I can see that Im going to have to read up on this a lot more. I wont give up until I find a solution.

Thanks again Teresa 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Thank you for all the info  and think Teresa should write a paper on this 

My own opinion, and no more than that is that you should insist on a referral to a specialist and the best in the country, not being in your area is not an excuse that the vet should use.

It should be what is best for Suki, not the vet and I think that Teresa is absolutely right about treatment.

Thank you my cats are fine although I have a new horror called Lupin 

[lindac]

Hi Gill thanks for getting back to me so quickly. You helped a lot the last time I wrote.
Yes, Suki had a swab taken initially and another more recently which confirmed that she still has this Pseudomonos.
A couple of months ago after the vet said she couldnt see any infection I took Suki to another vet for a second opinion. He detected some infection and recommended the Gentimicin ear drops.

Yes Suki is insured and the insurance have agreed to the claim.  I asked the vet a while ago about a referral to a specialist but she said that there are none in the area and that there are things that she could try. So far she has only tried the ear drops and this plug in the ear which tbh I thought was a complete waste of time. This plug was so tiny it was hard to understand how it could possibly work. This treatment meant Suki being sedated, cost including swab  £150!! Money isnt a big issue because I can claim off the insurance even though I have to pay a sizeable percentage, because of Sukis age I wasnt able to get 100% cover.

I dont think this Pseudomonos is viral,the viral word has not been mentioned by the vet, initially when I found out what it was I researched it and from what I read it is a particularly nasty form of bacteria and not unusual judging by the amount written about it on the internet.

When I asked the vet if Suki could possibly be in pain she said she doubted it because she would be showing signs of feeling ill and not eating etc. Suki is eating and acting fairly normally but she is obviously irritated by her ear.

In the early days the vet said that if it was her cat she would just leave her and hopefully Sukis own immune system might fight it off, she said this after previously saying to me that Suki probably went deaf following the dental because her immune system probably wasnt able to cope with the dental op! A bit of a contradiction I think.
Anyway I took her advice and left Suki for a while but the head shaking just got worse so I had to take her back to the vet. My thoughts are; surely bacteria grows and spreads if not treated and this is what I am frightened of, that it will just lead to further problems if left untreated not to mention that it must be awful for Suki being constantly irritated by her ear.

You are probably right about a referral to a specialist so I will ring the vet and ask her again if she can do that.

Please dont apologise for asking questions, I dont mind at all, its sometimes difficult to get all the details down especially when a problem has been going on a long time, so the more questions the better if it helps you and others to understand the problem.

Thanks again Gill for your response and Best Wishes, I will give Suki a big  from you

Hope you and your pets are well   

[Teresa Pawcats]

This is not good; Pseudomas are present all around us  and generally do not cause a problem, they have been around millions of years, however they do attack certain types of damage ie Suki`s ears and will keep attacking unless your vet can find a safe antibiotic and as you have found out one that can be applied directly to the damaged area.

I could write pages about this but wont, sadly Pseudomas keep attacking my lungs,there are antibiotics out there which will help to keep the pseudomas at bay I think your vet really needs to do some investigations as to which are cat safe.

I do hope Suki can be helped.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I have never heard of this infection.........if the vet cant see anything, why does she think it is this?

Has it been said if this is a viral thing or what? If a virus no ammount of abs will clear it , it will just have to burn out.

Just read your post again, presumably swabs have been taken and cultures grown?

Is Suki insured?

Sorry for all questions.

If she is insured I think maybe its time for referral to a specialist.

I like you would decline to sue something that may damage something like liver cos 14 is a getting older age.

I have many probs with own ears but all viral caused, I dont think for Suki being deaf will be too much of a problem but from the head shaking she sounds like she is in pain or her ears are irritating her and maybe this is what needs to be addressed.

Just throwing ideas around, sorry

Sending lots of good wishes for Suki and remember this when you last posted about it 

[lindac]

Greetings all,
Its been a while since I last wrote asking for advice and Im hoping that there is someone here that can offer more advice. My cat, Suki, has been deaf for a while after having a dental. She has coped with this well but she still has this ongoing ear infection in one ear, the bacteria is 'Pseudomonos' and apparantly it is a very difficult infection to get rid of. It has been going on for months now and after using Gentimicin ear drops which didnt clear it the vet recently suggested putting a plug in her ear that was swamped with the gentimicin antibiotic. [Its a middle or inner ear infection and apart from a little fluid in the ear the vet could see nothing.] This plug was to be kept in for a week, after it was taken out I was told to carry on with the ear drops for a week.
Unfortunately I think we are now back to square one because Suki is still shaking her head so I am assuming the ear infection is still there. Im beginning to despair of her ever being cured of this infection and am worried that she will have to live with it for the rest of her life. Im also worried of it getting worse and affecting her eye sight and goodness knows what else if it isnt cleared up. The vet has not suggested anything more. I think initially she wanted to give Gentimicin oral antibiotics but I wasnt keen to give these as I had read that they can cause blindness in cats, the vet also warned me that with this particular infection the antibiotics used can have dire consequences on the liver etc. Suki is 14 years old. Any advice or suggestions on what more I can do to help Suki get rid of this infection would be greatly appreciated.