Mancat Monday with Evan and His Ear

I realized that I haven't given any recent updates on the status of Evan's ear. For those who don't know or don't remember, Evan had an upper respiratory infection in January of this year. When he had that, he was doing a lot of sneezing, head shaking, and ear rubbing, which resulted in a hematoma on his right ear. Given all of Evan's already existing issues, his vet and I agreed that rather than put him under anesthesia to drain the hematoma and pin the ear flap shut, we'd let it heal on its own, as hematomas will usually do.

Well, Evan's aural (ear) hematoma decided it didn't want to heal in the normal way that most do. Evan just really doesn't like doing things the normal way, apparently. Through to early April or so, Evan's hematoma did shrink quite a bit, especially given that at its worst his entire ear pinna was swollen with the hematoma. But, then it reached a point where the hematoma hardened into what may now be some sort of scar tissue. Since April, it seems to have remained exactly the same, neither shrinking nor getting larger.

Do you see Evan's little cauliflower ear there?

You might remember how, earlier this year, first the hematoma and then this resulting scar tissue were causing Evan to get chronic infections in that ear. Since that ear is now weighed down and folded over, the ear canal can't get much airflow. So, moisture would build up in there and cause ear infections every 2 to 4 weeks. I was removing a lot of debris out of Evan's ear every day, and he was pretty much living on antibiotics. 

One of the vets at our clinic mentioned that if the ear infections continued, and especially if the ear was indeed stuck in this state, we might have to remove it. Before proceeding with anything that drastic, though, we decided to try having me clean his ear with a specially formulated antimicrobial ear cleaning solution every day. And guess what? Evan has not had a single ear infection since I started cleaning his ear with that.

Evan's ear is now staying clean and without infection, and has been for over 3 months now. He no longer seems bothered by it at all. That makes me so happy. If ever the vets were to think this state of his ear were to be a cause for concern for another reason, we could revisit the whole ear removal option. But, for now, using the antimicrobial ear cleaning solution twice a day has been keeping Evan and his ear happy, so I'll happily continue with that.

All that to say, above you can see how adorable Evan and his ear are. It's not a "normal" ear anymore, but is being normal really that great? Evan thinks not. And, of course, Evan is still my adorable little momma's boy. I don't care how his ear looks, as long as he and it are as healthy as possible, all things considered.

Happy Monday, friends!

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Flashback Doodle of the Day

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Tip of the Day

Many of us have furbabies who enjoy a cozy bed, and who also enjoy making a bed out of their human's clothes. That's why today's pet parenting hack of a tip is to use your old clothes to make a pet bed for your kitty or pup. You can take on old shirt, for example, and stuff it with a pillow or other type of filling. You can sew it shut, or even just safely and securely tie it shut. Not only will the soft filling make this a cozy bed, but it will also smell like you, something that many furbabies enjoy. There are a great many options for creating beds in this manner, using shirts, pants, robes, and so forth. The options are endless, and you can even find ideas and techniques online for creating a variety of such pet beds.