Ears: Clean myself or take to vet?

[WhiteKitties]

Fergie needs her ears cleaned, which I've never done. Is this easy to do, or should I have the vet do it when she goes for her checkup/shots next month? She doesn't have a huge wax buildup, but a couple of times I've seen her stick her back foot in an ear and pull out wax, which grosses me out. It would be nice if her sister would clean her ears, but Fern is content to have her ears cleaned 'til they drip and never return the favor.

[laurief]

I'd have the vet do it because the vet can swab the ear and check for ear mites or fungal, yeast, or bacterial infection. Cats with healthy ears don't normally scratch them. Also, I read somewhere that you have to be extremely careful what you put into a cat's ears or you can do serious damage.

Leave the ears to your vet.

Laurie

[Mom of 4]

I agree with the above.
I clean my dog's ears, but will never clean the cat's ears.

[Jack&Harley]

Jack had a yeast infection in his ear when we found him. After that he really struggled with wax in his ears so the vet gave us some ear wash solution, you basically squirt it in the ear, massage the ear and then let them shake it out--which they inevitably do whether you want or not. It works like a charm-- don't have to use it nearly as often as when he was younger but great to have on hand. Actually need to do Harleys ears. Too bad none of these cats groom each other. Hopefully Pepper really starts charming them and can convince them its a good thing and meowmy will have to do less of these tasks herself.

Leslie

[WhiteKitties]

Originally Posted by laurief

Cats with healthy ears don't normally scratch them.

Laurie

I actually don't see her scratch them very often, usually just the expected behind-the-ear scratch every so often, otherwise I'd take her to the vet this month. I think there's just enough wax in there that she needs a cleaning, but based on what everyone has said so far I'll wait for her vet visit next month and have them do it. It's not like she's going to sit still for it, so I'll let them get the stuff shaken on them instead of me!

I wonder if she cleans her sister's ears so well because she knows hers aren't as clean as she would like them.... I'd say she spends about ten minutes per ear per day on Fern's head - I swear you could eat out of those ears, they're so clean!