Pet Exchange Corner

welcome to our regular “Ask the cat Doc With Dr. Lynn Bahr” segment! once a month, Dr. Bahr answers as lots of of your questions as she can, and you can leave new questions for her in a comment.

Dr. Bahr is a 1991 graduate of the university of Georgia’s college of Veterinary medicine and founder of Dezi & Roo, a company that designs, manufactures, and offers solution-based products that enhance the lives of cats and their owners. She volunteers at many animal-related charities and triggers and serves on the concern complimentary Advisory Board, the Parliamentarian of the society of Veterinary medical Ethics, the cat committee of the Pet professional Guild, and the alley cat Allies’ Feline forward task Force.

Dr. Bahr is co-author of the upcoming book Indoor Cat: how to Enrich Their Lives and expand Their World, due out in April of 2022 and available for pre-order now.

For a lot more information about Dezi & Roo and their special and innovative cat toys, please visit Dezi and Roo on Etsy.

Please note that Dr. Bahr will take a two-month break from our column. She will answer any questions left on this post in January.

Do you have a question for Dr. Bahr? Leave it in a comment and she’ll answer it in January’s column.

How to clean a cat’s ears

Hi. Recently, my cat had an ear infection. As part of assisting with that infection, I was told by my vet to clean her ears 2x a week using an Oticetic Flush, which I did. However, I’m confused as to whether I was doing it ideal in the first place.

The first vet nurse told me to squeeze the liquid onto a cotton ball and then squeeze the cotton ball so the liquid goes into the ear. then I had to use q-tips to clean some of the debris in the ear.

They did say not to put the q-tip all the way into ear. the most the q-tip can go in is half the cotton swab. The other half of the cotton part must be sticking out of the ear. I would clean as much of the inside of the ear that I could or as much as Sophie would let me.

When I went for a re-check, another vet nurse told me to add the drops to the cotton ball, put in the ear, and massage the ear so the liquid goes into the ear, not as aggressively as squeezing the liquid from the cotton ball as I was told initially.

Everything else is the same in regards to the qtips.

After the infection cleared, they suggested that I do an ear cleaning 1 to 2 times a week.

So I gotten an ear cleanser, but this is where I’m confused. The directions says to add the drops inside the ear, rub the base of the ear and then wipe with a cotton ball moistened by a lot more of the ear cleanser. and under no scenarios to use cotton swabs.

I’m not sure what’s the right way. I’m leaning towards the second option, but the whole ‘do not use cotton swabs’ is throwing me off. – Abby

Hi Abby,

I am delighted to hear that your cat’s ear infection has been resolved. That indicates you did a fantastic job of cleaning her ears despite whatever method you used. Bravo and congratulations!

While ear cleansing is beneficial, I typically recommend owners do so 1-2 x’s a month at a lot of once any infections have been resolved. a lot more than that is normally unnecessary, not to mention tough and possibly unpleasant for both pet parents and their kitties.

As you have discovered, there are several different techniques used to clean ears and I recommend you continue to work with the one that caused the least discomfort for your cat and was the easiest for you to administer. Don’t change what works for you.

Whenever possible, I try things out on myself first before I do so on my own cats. So, after instilling option into my own ear, using the different techniques you described, I found that I preferred the feeling of a soaked cotton ball and massage to having liquid poured or squeezed into the canal. It was less shocking and a lot more comfortable with the soaked cotton ball and the massage was pleasant.

It is also helpful to instill a heated option into the ear canal because it feels so much better than cold liquid. You can do that by putting the bottle in a warm water bath for a few minutes prior to use. This is a little trick I use often that makes the entire procedure a lot more pleasing for the cat.

With regards to using a Q-tip, there is less danger of inserting it too far into a cat’s ear canal (because it is shaped like the letter L) than into a human’s ear canal. That is because humans have a very short ear canal while cats have longer, narrower canals that make nearly a 90-degree bend as it travels to the deeper parts of the ear. So, you really don’t have to worry about inserting it too far.

The primary reason why some suggest never using Q-tips, and the reason you need to be concerned about them, is the Q-tip could push wax and/or debris additionally down the canal. technique is crucial and unless you know how to use the Q-tip appropriately to scoop matter out, innullnull