Ear problems

Wondering if anyone else has experienced problem with their kitty's ears? Oscar does so great when it comes to testing, but his ears look painful. I use Vaseline and put Neosporin on afterwards, and often daily I'll wash them with a warm cloth which he seems to love. I put pressure on the spot every time after we do a poke as well.

He doesn't seem bothered, but he's such a good and docile cat, he never really complains about anything even when he's in pain. I'm worried I'm hurting him and I haven't been testing as much as normal because I want to give his ears a break, which is driving me nuts because I constantly want to know where his BG is.

His right ear, which is most often used because of convenience, is often warm to the touch. He also has a little white pustule a little off from the edge of the ear, I know I hit a vein once so I'm not sure if that's where it came from. He seems to lean in whenever I touch that ear, as if he likes the pressure.

I'm honestly kind of worried about it becoming infected, and this whole process is starting to worry me. I know I worry a lot on this board, but this is something that I can just feel doesn't feel right. I don't feel like they should be looking like this. So I'm wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar (particularly the warm ears, or the little white bumps), if it's something that should resolve on it's own or if I should be trying to give them a break. Just a little anecdotal experience would be nice

 

One of my cats, Badger does show indications of repeated poking but otherwise his ears are fine and do not seem to bother him at all. All my other diabetics' ears do not really show signs of repeated poking. One of my cats, Patches I poked for almost 10 years. I only use petrolatum (one brand name is Vaseline) on the ear before poking.

 

I completely understand. I did a curve over the weekend and his ears aren't looking so hot. No white pustule but definitely must have poked through once or twice since it's scabs or red and sore on either side of the ear. I too have given breaks when this has happened because I feel so bad. I can't help with the pustule, but I can say I understand about giving a break. I know it's not highly recommended here but I feel like sometimes you have to let them heal.

 

Have you by any chance noticed one ear to be warmer than the other after long testing days like that? The other day my boyfriend had to watch Oscar, and after getting a "low" reading (which has never happened to us before), he had to keep testing him a lot for the obvious reason and because he had never poked him before, and it took some trial and error with the pokes. It was after this particular day I noticed the white pustules and warm ear. It's also pretty red.

I was able to find some old threads on the message board about other's who have seen these white bumps from pokes, so I'm not super worried about those. I'm more worried about the warmth, as in my experience in the medical field with humans...warmth= infection. I haven't really heard any anecdotal evidence from anyone about this happening to them, so I'm hoping this isn't the case. But I know my boyfriend (who really was trying his best) did use the same white towel over, and over, to hold his ear when he poked, and used that towel to press on the poke after.

Either way he's been in high numbers lately anyways, so I'm going to give him a decent break from poking a bit before we raise his dose. So hopefully by then they will be all healed up and I can do the testing I need to. We're doing a food change starting tomorrow anyways (has IBD so grain free dry food couldn't be immediately eliminated) so we're going to go slow with this next increase while we do that and give him time for his ear's to heal. It feels like a little more than just redness/ the typical minimal poke trauma you'd expect to see.

 

Our first sugar cat was textbook perfect but his brother had ear issues. No matter what I did I could not get a big enough sample from his right ear so his left ear took a beating over the years. He was patient with me and was rewarded with a warm and damp paper towel ear rub, he wasn't much for treats. Sometimes what we think looks painful isn't that bad, it's just your empathy showing.
What worked for me was a pre-test ear rub, switching to a bigger lancet and working free-hand, both brothers disliked lancing devices. I could do 10 straight perfect pokes and then just shred his tiny ear so I know the feeling.

 

I haven't noticed a warm ear for a long period afterward though it is possible. I have noticed redness and some pierce-throughs that are dark red with scabs but that's about it. It will get better, I promise, but it does totally suck and you feel so awful! I understand about giving a break; I think I'll have to as well since both of them are looking a little rough from the weekend. I hope your food change goes well!