Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 9/30/2006

Question
Hello, my question is,my 3 year old cat goes outside most of the time. He was gone for at least a month. when he came back, he had a bad smell coming from one of his ears. And the inside of the ear has some black stuff in it. Why the bad smell? could he have an ear infection? and could I use human ear drops to cure it? like antibiotic ear suspension neomycin and polymyxin b sulfates? thank you, C.Giar

Answer
Cats rarely get ear infections like people or dogs.  They can get ear mites (bugs) or they can get ruptured eardrums from sneezing.  I would advise you to let your vet look in the ears before you put anything in them.  If the eardrum is ruptured and you put in the neomycina nd ploymyxin, these are both very toxic to the inner ear and you can cause severe problems.