There are two nicely optimistic pictures of cats without their ear flaps on the internet both of which come from Facebook rescue organisations.
They both lost their ear flaps (pinnae) because of infections and haematomas. I wondered how it had happened. Some quick research revealed the answer.
Community cats are prone to getting ear mites and a subsequent infection of the ear canal which is the passage running from the outside of the ear to the ear drum which yon can’t see. The ear mites irritate the cat. The cat scratches her ears to ease the irritation which causes another problem. The skin is broken by the scratching which leads to an infection in the ear canal and the ear flaps with accompanying bleeding inside the ear flap (a haematoma or more precisely aural haematoma).
Sometimes aural haematomas are caused by an injury. Draining the ear and surgery is the normal treatment but if the damage to the ear flap is very bad, amputation is sometimes the preferred course of action. Here are two examples. As mentioned there is a lot of optimism surrounding these cats which I like. Ironically, they both look like Scottish Fold cats. This is useful as celebs such as Taylor Swift have Scottish Folds. The loss of the ear flaps gives a baby-faced appearance to the cats; a positive attribute.
Lady in a Fur Coat becomes a bit of a star
She has been called ‘Lady in a Fur Coat’ (‘Lady’ for short) because Ash Collins, a staffer at the Dane County Humane Society knitted a pair of ears for this sweetly behaved rescue cat who lost her ear flaps to surgery for the reasons stated above. She arrived at the shelter in December last year. She became a bit of a celebrity on the internet which as nice and which did her no harm in getting adopted quickly. A great job by the shelter. She was adopted soon after she wore her new ears!
Jacob
The lady, Roe Navek, who lives with Jacob wrote a comment on the post about the Lady with a Fur Coat (see below) because Jacob had suffered in exactly the same way and had completely healed. He looks great too. Roe says that she rescued him from the Homeward Bound Pet Adoption Centre in New Jersey.
Meet Jacob i rescued him from Homeward Bound Pet Adoption Center in New Jersey he had the same exact thing and look at him now a year later totally healed! I love you Lady ! Jacob says your beautiful !
SOME MORE ON EAR MITES AND INFECTION. These are articles are not designed to encourage home treatment. A vet is needed.
