Yeast infection in ears?

I took a friend's cat named Beautiful to the Vet for her this afternoon because she had told me that she was concerned that Beautiful might have ear mites. My friend is struggling financially and wasn't able to afford a visit to the Vet. today, plus she doesn't own a vehicle, so I offered to take Beautiful to the Vet's office for her, and to pay for it.

ANYWAY, the Vet cleaned out the Beautiful's ears, and got a HUGE black chunk of something out of one of the ears, and a LOT of black stuff out of both ears otherwise. She looked at it under a microscope to check for mites, and said there were no ear mites......it was just a really bad yeast infection!

I have never heard of yeast infections in the ears of a cat! Is this common? She put some medicine in each ear while we were at the office, and prescribed it for Beautiful to get some put into each ear every day until it's gone. I sure hope it helps Beautiful feel better!

Have any of you had any kind of experience with this?

Yeast infections are a pain. Usually, with those kinds of infections, there is a distinct "odor" that will also show up. My Sphynxes get them every now and again. It's more common in those breeds because they have no fur in their ears to catch dirt and grease.

It's no big deal, and I'm sure the drops the vet gave you will disappear.

Hugs to Beautiful!!!;)

As Donna said, it is not uncommon. Thank you for taking poor Beautiful, and next time perhaps your friend will know what to keep an eye out for, and it won't get as bad.

Very normal for cats -- AND dogs, especially dogs with drop ears, like mine. It happens, now and again.

Ear infections can be either yeast or bacteria. These 2 are are different ends of the pH scale, so the medication for one will not help with the other. This is why the vet had to look under the scope, to determine exactly which type of infection it was ( and to verify no mites, of course).

Poor kitty sure has been miserable, I am so glad you were able to get the cat in to the vet, and get the meds. Bet that kitty will love you furever, he hee. Joking, this is a CAT after all. Anyway, a few days on the meds and the cat will feel LOTS better!

One of my dogs, Lacey, is quite prone to ear infections (either type, she doesn't discriminate:rolleyes:) so I take preventive action. I use Oti Clens to clean her ears, twice a week. My other dogs, even though the same breed, are not in need of this. So depending on the cat's age, how long your friend has had her, this may or may not be something to consider in the future.

I had to go over and show my friend how to put the medicine in Beautiful's ears after I got off work this evening. Beautiful doesn't trust me very much right now :( even though I didn't take the carrier in! She struggled a bit with having the ear medicine put in but I was able to show her human how to do it and I'm sure she'll be more cooperative for her from now on than she was this evening when I was involved with it! She DID let me pet her briefly a little later this evening. Maybe I'll take her a catnip toy or something the next time I go over there, so she can associate me with something positive and not just the negative! :(

On the bright side, she is doing MUCH better overall my friend says! :) She has to go back to have her ears checked again after the medicine is all used up.........