On Thursday my mother called me and asked for help with my brother's cat that she was attempting to care for while he was on holiday. When I got there, I saw something unbelievable: the poor cat's ear had swelled up like a balloon and he had what is called an ear haematoma.
Tommy cat was taken to a vet before my brother left and the swelling had been drained and the cat sent home with instructions to keep pricking the ear and draining it. My mother had been trying to do so but needless to say, poor Tommy didn't appreciate this and had been hiding under the bed and not eating for days. She had gotten him to eat for the first time that morning.
When I got there he came out from under the bed, allowed me to drain his ear and I fed him and gave him cat painkillers. I wasn't happy about the situation at all and told them that he needed to see a vet again. That night, I asked her not to feed him in the morning and I would call my vet and ask if she would perform surgery. Of course, someone went ahead and fed him that morning but I spoke to my vet and she said that it wasn't an emergency and that I could continue giving him painkillers if necessary and surgery could be booked for the coming week but that we shouldn't try and drain his ear again as we ran the risk of introducing bacteria and causing an abscess. Tommy has been much happier since then and eating so he has been left alone for now although I will make sure that he is taken for surgery next week.
Ear haematomas are caused by injury to the cartilage in a cat's ear and the swelling is a blood blister which will eventually subside if left untreated and the cat will then develop a "cauliflower ear". Surgery involves draining the blister and stitching the ear so that the ear skin reattaches to the cartilage which reduces the swelling and deformation of the ear. This is a good idea because a cat has difficulty cleaning a deformed ear and excessive scratching and shaking his ear makes it more likely that he will get another haematoma.
Hopefully something can be done to improve his ear so that this doesn't recur.
