Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

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Flight
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Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Flight »

Hello, I'm new and I hope someone with more knowledge than me will be able to help.

I've just adopted an older cat who I'm told has a suspected liver tumour, and isn't expected to live for more than a few more weeks.

She is an absolute darling, and very friendly, but she is super skinny and looks very unwell, and I am trying my best to make her comfortable.

We've got her a radiator bed, because she wanted to curl up by the pipes all the time so this is a bit more comfy, and warmer for her I hope. She is having three meals a day, though obviously isn't putting on weight. Looking at the Glasgow pain scale for cats she doesn't seem to be in much pain, and she isn't on meds.

What's worrying me is that she keeps trying to scratch at her ear. There's no sign of mites, and I'm told the sanctuary medicated her as usual with anti-flea stuff, though I'm hesitating to use the Advocate we've got because of her condition, in case it's too much for her. But no sign of fleas either.

Could it be a nervous thing, or perhaps - well what I'm thinking is could the cancer have spread to somewhere in her head, and it's either making her think she has an itch when she doesn't, or it's something inside that's bothering her... I don't know, it's just a shame if this makes her uncomfortable for her last few weeks, and I don't know what to do.

If anyone's got any thoughts please feel free to shout. She is a really gorgeous cat and I'm so glad to have her with us even if it's just for a short while; our other boy was killed by a car the week before we got her, and I have put off the grief by replacing him, as it were, for the time being, because I just couldn't bear it. So I am very much glad to have her here, but I love her for her own character as much as her importance to me. If that makes sense.

Thank you for reading.
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Ruth B
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Ruth B »

Thank you so much for taking her in even though you know she will only be with you a short time, it will no doubt make her last weeks so much better.

i'm certainly no expert but i do know that Cancer can spread to other areas so it is possible that it has got somewhere that is irritating her ears, but with the diagnosis she already has i doubt' there is much that could be done except to treat the symptoms. I would certainly suggest a trip to the vets, they can give her ears a good check over and there might be something they can give to ease the irritation. Scans might show up something, but I'm not sure they are worth it at her time of life as you would then have to decide whether to put her through any treatment if it was available.

My elderly cat also has problems with her ears. A year ago there seemed to be something wrong in the whole ear, nose and throat department, including her having a bad respiratory infection that wouldn't clear up. We decided against having tests done, it would have stressed her out and even if something was picked up, I wasn't going to put her through invasive surgery to try and fix it. I'll be honest, at the start of the year I did not expect her to be still with us by now, but she is hanging in there. She too is on the thin side and no matter what she is fed doesn't put weight on, and at times it doesn't seem to matter what we offer she doesn't want to eat it. She also still has ear problems and the vets couldn't see anything obvious wrong except they do seem to get very waxy. I have some wipes to try and clear them which does help although she doesn't like it being done, and I risk having my hand ripped to shreds every time I try and do it, but I'll keep risking that while it seems to help her. While there are days when i start thinking the end is near, the next day she will have picked up and be back to being her normal self. All I can do is keep monitoring her and when the bad days outweigh the good we will call it an end.

Elderly cats are a worry, you want them to have a long as possible, but worry about whether they are suffering. Give her a gentle fuss from me and i hope she is with you for a good few weeks or even months.
Flight
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Flight »

Thank you so much Ruth for your lovely and helpful reply. I'm sorry I didn't see it until now - I thought I would get an email when someone answered, but nothing came so I will have to set up my account properly.

It is good to hear from someone else with an elderly cat and I am sorry you are in a similar position, worrying about how best to make them comfortable while knowing time is limited. Your cat sounds very sweet and it sounds as though you put a great deal of thought into making sure she is as comfortable as she can be.

I think you're right - it does seem pointless to put her through any more, really, and I can't afford anything fancy like a scan, in any case, so until it gets very insistent with her ear habit, I will just try and stroke her and fuss her a lot, and she does like that very much... perhaps if I can get her to be more relaxed, it will help.

Sadly I think we will probably only have a couple of months at most, she is really just skin and bone now - I wish I had seen her earlier as she has been in the sanctuary since January, and they didn't think anyone would take her, so she's got all matted and knotted and I can't groom her now without causing her pain, so she will have to be untidy - but I have combed her head and a bit of her sides gently, until she seemed to want me to stop. They were kind to her there but no one had time to sit and be a warm lap and comb her fur, so at least she has that now - and carpet instead of concrete.

I think I will try and give her ears a little clean, if she will let me, though they look pretty good considering the state of her.

Thank you again for taking the trouble to write back, and I wish you and your puss all the best too, and as long a time together as is possible.
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by fjm »

If she is matted I wonder if it could be knotted fur around the ears causing irritation, rather than a problem inside the ear? If you have combed her head you may already have checked the area, though.
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Ruth B »

If she is matted I can give one suggestion, it's a technique I learnt when our old Ragdoll cat (unfortunately no longer with us) became badly matted. If you can get a fine metal toothed comb and a sharp pair of scissors, it might be possible to slide the comb between the matt and the skin and then you can safely cut the matt away as the metal comb protects the the skin and prevents you cutting her, which is the main danger when trying to cut matts out. It is a slow process, I could only ever do a matt or two at a time, sometimes only half of one if it was a big mat, but every little bit was a little more comfy as the fur wasn't being pulled quite so much. I did buy a pair of clippers to try on him but never got far with them, he didn't like the noise and i was too worried about hurting him as I didn't really know what i was doing.

If she seems to feel the cold you might also want to look at the 'self heating pet pads' you can buy, they aren't really self heating but hold and reflect the animals own heat back to them.
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Mollycat »

Bless you for taking on this old lady for whatever time she has left and working hard to make her as comfortable as possible, when so many healthy cats are overlooked just because they are a bit older and 'might' get sick. People like you are real angels.

You might be able to pin down where the issue is if she will let you rub the ear. I've sometimes been able to do it, you kind of have to judge the reaction as you touch different areas of the ear, in my experience they seem to push really hard against you when you hit the spot and then get irritated quite quickly. If she will let you go inside the ear flap but obviously not down into the ear canal you can narrow it down even more.

Does she shake her head fast so her ears flap sometimes, that ear down more? Or tilt her head with that ear down? Also when she scratches at it does she sniff or lick the foot she has scratched it with afterwards?

If it is just irritation you can get drops from the vet or the old fashioned home soother is to gently warm some oil, my mother swears by olive oil, put just one drop into the ear then put one thumb on the outside base of the ear and rub to disperse the oil - if she enjoys that, of course, I wouldn't try it if she doesn't like being rubbed hard there! It also helps dissolve any ear wax.

As for heat pads you can get special pet microwave heat pads, don't use a human hot water bottle, the so called self-heating reflective ones are good too and a very gentle heat. You may be able to give some high calorie convalescence food to take the edge off her weight loss and to be honest my own philosophy is if they really are well into their ninth life then offer all the meaty tasty titbits they will accept. There comes a time when love and comfort matter more than anything else.
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by sera72 »

How wonderful to take an elderly cat and I must say they do possess certain unique personalities as they age. 6 months back I adopted a 14.5-year-old cat, my Ziggy and its 6 months since I had her and she means the world to me. Her previous owners had to give her up due to sudden unexpected allergy reaction but we gladly adopted her. She was recently diagnosed with kidney issues which we are dealing with it currently but otherwise she's a precious little thing full of energy and always around to stroke her.

When you mentioned that your dear one was scratching the ears constantly it reminded me of the same situation when Ziggy came to stay with us. We thought it was the stress of moving to a new home which is understandable and we took to the vet and there were no ear mites or anything wrong with the ears. So it was purely stress of adapting to a new environment. Also, Ziggy has been with one owner for 14.5 years and before coming to us and I can just imagine how sad internally she would have been to be given up by her handler after so many years. We tried to keep her happy and just being there for her always and she was never alone in the house. One thing I did try to do was to relax her, I put on some Cat movies on Youtube and instantly she became hooked to all the cat videos in youtube. Soon it was part of her day routine to watch couple of hours of cat movies which would relax Ziggy and forget about her itching ears for sometime and eventually she stopped itching Her favourite currently is Simon's Cat and all the other relaxing cat movies which is hilarious as we see she enjoys it so much she tries to jump on the tv to grab a squirrel or mouse . So make sure the TV is kept at a higher level where your little fur baby cannot reach :) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... s+to+watch or https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... p=eAE%253D or https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... on%27s+cat

I hope your fur baby will overcome her hurdle and live as long as she can with such great warmth and love she's currently getting in you, I am sure she will
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Flight »

Oh gosh, thank you very very much for these very helpful and kind posts. There is so much wonderful advice and I am reading carefully the things you have all suggested.
She seems to have got quite fond of her radiator bed and I can't imagine her ever abandoning it at the moment, but I have somewhere a heat-reflecting pad that I got for our rabbits long ago (before I realised they were just going to eat it!) and I will try to find it and put it in one of the other places she sometimes sits, in case it helps.
FJM - thank you for the suggestion - her ear fur isn't matted, though, at least not at the moment; I managed to comb out a little bit around her neck and chest as well, and on her back, but it is quite intractable on her poor little legs so I shall leave those bits I think, unless as you suggest Ruth I can manage to get the scissors in between the knotty bit and her skin - but I'm still a bit hesitant as she's only been with me a week, and it might make her anxious. That is a really good idea though - and I will definitely use it on any other cats I have who might be staying with us a bit longer, because I imagine then their fur will grow back smooth again and not bother them. I like the idea of it though and if we have Sparkle a bit longer I will see what I can do.
Sera, I love the idea of cat videos - if I can persuade her to stay in the living room I will try it for her. At the moment she is sleeping a lot, but you never know! I am glad to read about your little cat Ziggy - she sounds very sweet, and it is interesting to hear that she had the ear-scratching thing too. Sparkle hasn't been doing it so much today, so perhaps it is the same thing.
Mollycat thank you very much for the idea about the ear drops. I hadn't thought about it and I will try your technique and see if I can find out where the problem might be, if she keeps doing it. I think if she shook her head very fast she would keel over! - she is always falling sideways, as her little legs are quite weak. But I think she would if she could.

I'm encouraged that she seems, to me, to be a little bit less skinny than she was. I might well be imagining it, but I'm hoping that being in the warm she will be using fewer calories to keep her body temperature up, so she might not lose weight so quickly at least. I would post a picture of her but I think you have to use a URL and I've only got jpeg files. Anyway if I work out how then I will.

Thank you again very much for all of the advice and kind words. I was feeling a bit lost if I'm honest, and so having your collective experience and your willingness to share it has been really valuable.
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Ruth B
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Ruth B »

If you do try cutting the matts out, make sure you use a comb to prevent mistakenly cutting her skin.

Tiggy is also at the slightly wobbly stage, her back legs don't have the strength they used to, she can still jump reasonably well, but sideways motion is more of a problem and when she gives herself a good shake she often half falls over. The other day she was crossing from my computer desk to my modelling desk, a gap of about 8" and normally would be no more than a step for her, however just as she got her front paws on the modelling desk, she decided to scratch one of her ears, while giving her head a good shake. Her one back leg couldn't hold her and she ended up slipping down into the gap. I grabbed her and fortunately the cutting mat on the modelling desk proved to be a very effective surface to insert claws into. Nothing was hurt bar her dignity, but the look she gave me as if i had made her do it to make her look foolish, or maybe just be cause i had witnessed her do it.
Flight
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Re: Elderly cat in last weeks - scratching at ear

Post by Flight »

Oh poor puss! Yes that sounds a lot like Sparkle, her back legs are quite weak and she will sort of crouch rather than stand, quite often. But she can still jump up, which is nice to see. I'm glad your little one was all right!

I will be sure to use the comb - thank you again for all your help.
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