Vet Update from Rocky's Mom

Poor Rocky had a traumatic vet visit, and he has an even more traumatic one coming up tomorrow. And I'm furious! I've been battling problems with Rocky's ears for a couple of years now. He's seen 3 different vets in our city, and I've gotten diagnoses of everything from bacterial infection to ear discoloration because he produces too much ear wax. We solved the ear wax problem, but lately his ears have become worse and developed black nodules.

The vet today essentially told me, "His ears are full of tumors. They may or may not be malignant. No way to tell. Nothing we can do but give him ear ointment for inflammation (Animax). It'll get worse, but might not kill him. I've seen this before." I asked her what causes this and what the condition is called, and she said, "I have no idea what causes it and I don't know what it's called."

Yes, she actually said those things to me!!! So I called a competent vet in Indianapolis, who said the vet here, in spite of her rotten bedside manner, could be right, in which case it's a glandular condition that white cats who produce too much ear wax are prone to get. But it could also be cancer, and she couldn't believe the vet here didn't do x-rays or a biopsy.

So tomorrow I'm driving Rocky 80 miles to have further testing by a vet who actually knows what she's doing. He's a tough guy at home, but the poor little fellow is absolutely terrified of riding in a car. He doesn't even need a carrier because he goes almost comatose and curls up in a quivering fetal position and won't move.

Please keep us in your thoughts and Rocky could use lots of soothing purrs to comfort him during his 80 mile trip and biopsy at the vet. I feel terrible now for posting something humorous about this below. It breaks my heart to have to put my otherwise fearless baby boy through this, and I'm so worried about the test results.

~~ Sharolyn