Ear polyps

[lilynmitz]

My 8yr old puss Elsie has ear polyps, which one vet described as “spectacular”. He also said it’s an awful operation to remove them as it’s so fiddly, and bleeds a lot, and they end up taking out the inner ear canal. They usually try to manage it by treating any infections, which can stave off surgery indefinitely, but I think Elsie’s are really starting to bother her.

Someone on here a long time ago said their cat had been through this op and it was grim. Does anyone have experience of this? Any words of wisdom?

[Mollycat]

Yuk, I presume you've already consulted the Google? I found this, is it inflammatory polyps?
https://bluepearlvet.com/medical-articl ... s-in-cats/

[lilynmitz]

Not sure if it’s inflammatory, but otherwise that sounds right, thanks for the link. She’s been tested for FIV and is neg. and has regular vaccines against FELV. I think if the vet thought it was cancerous they’d have done something by now. I keep putting off the surgery as she won’t cope at all well with surgery and wearing a collar, but I don’t think I can leave it indefinitely.

[Mollycat]

15 months ago I didn't think I could ever cope with an active dog having cruciate ligament surgery, but I did. 3 years ago I was beside myself while Molly spent 2 weeks in Langford having her radioactive iodine, yet here we are.

We get to a point where avoiding becomes harder than taking the plunge. Be brave.

[lilynmitz]

I know you’re right, I’m no stranger to major surgery in my cats. Time to bite the bullet I think.

[lilynmitz]

Poor Elsie, the vet gave her ears a fairly brutal cleaning out, one was full of gunk and infected behind the polyps, so she’s on ear drops for 10 days (if she’ll let me near her!). If that doesn’t work, they’ll sedate her and give them an even more thorough clean out, but she looks pretty uncomfortable now. She has almost forgiven me and sat on my lap for a while. Thankfully the polyps haven’t grown down into the inner ear canal, so if she does need surgery it won’t be too hard to remove them.

[lilynmitz]

Poor Elsie, I took her back for a review on Tuesday and the vet said we'd got on top of the infection but her ears still needed a good cleaning out under anaesthetic, so we booked her in for the next morning. Meanwhile, just as we were going to bed that night Elsie scratched her ear and made one of the polyps burst (the vet says they're actually cysts, but everyone calls them polyps), so suddenly there was blood everywhere. I took her into the kitchen and managed to stem the bleeding with wet cotton wool pads, and did my best to clean her up, but every time she shook her head she sprayed blood everywhere. I ended up covering the living room furniture with towels (it's where she sleeps) and sat up with her till nearly 2am to stop her scratching it again. She eventually went to sleep, so I crawled off to bed, eternally grateful she had a vet appointment the next morning.

Anyway, they decided to remove a few of the polyps and gave both ears a good clean out, but couldn't remove the polyps in her "bleeding ear" as they were too deeply imbedded, and it's a big and painful op, so we decided it's best to just keep managing it. Poor Elsie is on house arrest wearing a buster collar for a week, which she hates, and thereafter we have to use a cleaning solution on her ears every week. Why do I always end up with high maintenance cats?!