Mozart’s Mishap
This is a story about a cat with a sore ear…. but it started much more dramatically.
Little Mozart is a 5 month old ginger and white kitten who was having a pretty crummy day. He somehow got squashed when his owner was shutting a drawer. Ouch! His predicament was discovered quite quickly and Mozart was raced to Pittwater Animal Hospital. He had what looked like blood coming out his ear…this could be serious.
It is always important in a trauma situation to decide how serious the injury is. Was there brain damage? Was Mozart aware of his surroundings? The first thing Dr Jill did was put Mozart on the ground to assess him from a distance. Mozart walked around the room looking completely unconcerned, then came over to rub himself on the vet’s leg. He seemed pretty happy.
Mozart did however have a bloody discharge in his left ear. Could this be head trauma? A sample under the microscope revealed an infection that had been there for some time. Lots of neutrophils (pus) and bacteria.
Mozart had an ear infection that had been there for quite some weeks. Ear infections in cats are very, very difficult to treat. Cats will often have semipermeable ear drums, which means anything you place in the ear might travel into the middle ear and cause significant problems. Middle ear disease can cause Horner’s syndrome which manifests as a head tilt and third eyelid extrusion. Horner’s syndrome might be temporary but can last for months.
We avoided treating Mozart with ear drops but carefully removed the discharge and gave Mozart a long acting antibiotic injection. If he doesn’t improve, his ear will be examined under anaesthetic to try to find a cause.
In the mean time everyone was pleased Mozart had not been squashed in the drawers and would be able to go home and get into more mischief.
