Possible Ear Infection - Raised BGL's - Topical Steroids?

Hi,

My cat Blue has exhibited signs of a fungal infection in his ear such as itchiness in the canal the last 48 hours. He has had this before and the vet prescribed him Tresaderm and an ear flush medication. I believe that Tresaderm has a steroid in it? I'm guessing that this would not be wise to prescribe to a diabetic cat or maybe it is OK since it is basically a topical med? After 100+ hours off the juice his BGL has been high the last couple days where he needed a little bit of PZI. Coincidence?

What would be a suggested med for my diabetic cat if he should have any type of ear infection. I believe that these type of infections cat also raise the glucose level. Correct? Another thing - I read where these type infections are related to glucose levels in cats - though I cannot find the source at the moment.

He has a vet appointment in 16 hours. Thanks for your responses.

 

Re: Possible Fungal Infection - Diabetic Cat

I believe I have seen some people post that although they were told the topical steroids wouldn't affect BGs, they did. I don't know about fungal infections, but bacterial ones definitely can raise BGs, causing cats to need more insulin, or OTJ cats to go back on the juice.

If you don't get quick responses you might want to add something like "topical steroids ok?" to your subject line to be sure you get eyes on your post for the immediate question...

 

Will do Joanna. Thanks.

 

way back when, Mousie got a pretty darn bad ear infection that made it almost impossible for her to walk and we had to do ear drops and i want to say an antibiotic too. i want to say the name of the ear drops was Synotic, and it contained steroids. it didn't seem to effect Mousie's BG levels at all. fwiw, she was on pzi vet at that time.

but i do want to add that my kids that were formerly street kitties seem to be pretty darn tough cookies as we also had to be concerned about nausea with her world spinning so badly and yet she never once threw up nor did her appetite subside.

 

Synotic huh? I'll research that stuff and see what the vet thinks as well. Though I'm not sure what vets 'know' since most know little on how to treat FD. I'd really like to stay away from steroids altogether, but I think the choices are very limited in this circumstance.

I found some ear flush by Pharmaseb in my cabinet for when Blue had his previous infection. It's an antifungal/antibacterial wash. They gave him that and the Tresaderm last time. I have to wonder if the Tresaderm he has had in the past had any bearing on his current diabetic state? I doubt that it was the only factor, but possibly one of them as he had the ear infection around the same time he started with the polyuria. :?:

We flushed his ears with Pharmaseb just now just to get a head start. Cats with these ear problems use the Pharmaseb Flush as a preventative as well.

I also notice that Blue Cat seems to be losing some fur on his legs/feet and he is frequently cleaning/mouthing that area. Maybe this is some type allergy to his new diet? Hopefully I get a competent vet tomorrow as his regular vet won't be back til next week.

 

About the Tresaderm...I posted on this recently in another thread so will just repost it here....

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11377&p=113723#p113723

 

Thanks for that P&T.

I've been looking for not-steroidal alternatives and the only ones I can come up with are Baytril Otic and Malacetic Otic. Should anyone have experiences with any of those two, I'd love to hear about it. I have a feeling my vet is going to only offer the steroid remedies so I may have to get my own elsewhere.

 

I used both Animax and Tresaderm for my Twigie's ear problem. She had both yeast (a fungus) and bacteria. After a couple of treatments the Animal raised her BGs to about 500 when normally they were always below 150. With Tresaderm they were a little higher which would be expected due to the kind of steroid in Tresaderm. The ear treatment was then changed to oral antibiotics for the bacteria and Conofite topical for the yeast. I now use the Conofite weekly and can keep her BGs below 125.

 

Much thanks for the info! Conofite sounds like a viable option should he have the type of infection that it treats..