Swollen kitty ear

[catdoc]

My kitty Piper (6 years of age) has been vigorously scratching her right ear. Yesterday, the ear flap (pinna) was swollen and hot to the touch. Looks like an aural hematoma, which, on examination by the vet is correct. The underlying cause is a fungal infection and the hematoma is the result of vigorous ear scratching. I am taking Piper back to the vet tomorrow morning to have the swelling lanced (under sedation, so no breakfast for you, Piper) and the blood drained. Next will be treating the fungal infection, however, I would prefer to do this holistically. There has been no discharge, only the dark brown waxy gunk which the vet extracted from Piper's inner ear for viewing under the microscope. As for holistic treatment, I am at a bit of a loss to determine a good homeopathic remedy that fits Piper. She is friendly but not too willing to have her right ear touched in any way. The ear is uncomfortable but does not seem to be causing her any pain. There is no special time of day the itching is worse. In terms of what makes it better, I cannot say. Of course, touching the ear sets off the itching. I have been looking at Sulph as a possibility but I think my repertorization is a bit too slanted to her ear problem.

 

[Dr. Jeff]

Hey Bonnie-

I'm sorry to hear about Piper's aural hematoma (swollen ear) and ear itchiness.

Holistically-oriented research has found that tho shaking and scratching correlates with developing aural hematomas, they are not causative. In these studies, the physiologic (vs. energetic) cause was an autoimmune dis-ease of that effected the blood vessels in the ear, not trauma.

Drainage is a wonderful way to help Piper today, and here's a good review of the process for both dogs and cats:

Aural hematoma and it’s treatment: A review

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

IMHO, energetic treatment is the way to go to reduce the underlying imbalance that many of us believe to be the true cause. Good work that you are already doing this by looking for a homeopathic medicine that is similar to the totality of her imbalance.

A great place to start looking is with her BEAM and modalities.

The next place is her history and prior health challenges, treatments, etc.

Regarding treatments that can help her heal, I wonder what she eats? Promoting playing and purring will improve her ability to heal.

Please let us know how she does today.

 

[Dr. Sara]

I agree with Dr. Jeff regarding the cause of hematomas. His linked article is an excellent discussion of the conventional approach. The synopsis that I send to my clients is below:

In order to know what treatment is most likely to resolve an aural hematoma, it is helpful to understand how and why they develop. Aural hematomas are caused by the inflammation and rupture of tiny blood vessels in the ear flap. The blood seeps between the ear cartilage and skin. The ear protrudes away from the body, so the animal may easily damage it further by shaking its head or rubbing the hematoma because it feels strange.

Vets used to believe that hematomas always occurred because of trauma: a bite from another animal, ear mites, or an ear infection. The animal then damaged the blood vessels of the ear by scratching or shaking its head. Trauma can certainly cause inflammation of blood vessels (vasculitis) and rupture of these vessels, but more research is pointing to an immune-mediated cause of the vasculitis. This immune-mediated vasculitis can occur when an animal has seasonal or food allergies, has a transfusion reaction, or has an immune reaction (allergic reaction) to any medicine or vaccine. The current conventional medical treatment for aural hematomas now focuses on treating them as part of an overall allergic process.

Allergic problems are all capable of causing vasculitis. Yeast ear infections are caused by an animal's excessive response to normal organisms, and seasonal and food allergies are also indicative of an excessive, abnormal immune response. Symptomatic homeopathic remedies may help alleviate symptoms of a hematoma in the short term, but a constitutional approach with a qualified veterinary homeopath will be necessary to get to the root of the problem. Careful homeopathic prescribing should gently resolve all of the signs of illness as the animal responds to the remedy.

Many remedies can be useful in symptomatic treatment of aural hematomas. Arnica is certainly the 'go to' remedy for trauma and bruising, and it does help many aural hematomas. However, there are a lot of useful remedies, and as symptoms change, the appropriate remedy may change also. You need to study the first aid remedies so that you can use them appropriately.

As an example, my own dog developed bilateral hematomas as part of a blood transfusion reaction. Initial treatment with Arnica did not help, so I changed to Hamamelis; it did not seem to help either. Two remedies which did help considerably were Crotalus-h, a snake venom remedy, followed by Silicea a week later. The biggest improvement, and final resolution, occurred when I determined what my dog's constitutional remedy was, and treated her with that. During this time, I carefully observed my girl to see which remedy was most appropriate, I never gave more than one remedy at a time, and I waited to see what was going to happen before switching remedies. This is why it is so important to work with a skilled practitioner who knows you and knows your pets.

 

[catdoc]

Thank you Dr Jeff and Sr Sara for your input. If only there was such a thing as a Homeopathic vet here in Merida Mexico, but alas, that is not the case. Piper had her ear lanced at the vet clinic this morning and the haematoma drained. A few stitches were put in to close the small incision and I dosed her with Arn 200C when I picked her up at the clinic. According to the vet, Piper has a fungal infection in her ear. Todate, I am unaware of any food allergies Piper may have. She did undergo kitty dental surgery about 6 weeks ago and she recovered just fine from that. Her appetite increased considerably following the dental surgery, no doubt because it no longer hurt her mouth to eat. She has been making up for lost time in terms of eating. I have not changed her diet so nothing new has been added.

I will see how she responds to the Arn before I give her anything else, which will probably be Hypericum 30C to deal with pain and discomfort. I will look more closely at her BEAM and modalities to see if I can find a constitutional remedy for her. Thank you

 

[catdoc]

Piper was ok with the Arnica and I have not had to give her anything else just yet. However, adding more rubrics to the repertory for her, Sulph still seems to lead, so that is what I am going to do next. Knowing that the underlying condition is probably the trigger for the hematoma, (thanks Dr Sara) I will work from that point. Piper has been a bit of a challenge for me in terms of finding the correct constitutional remedy for her.

By the way, following her dental surgery, I only did Hypericum for pain and let her own vital force take care of the curing, which, considering what has recently taken place, I wonder if her vital force was up to the task.