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Why is my cat's raw ear not healing despite e-collar and ointment?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | | 7 lbs

Our one year cat has scratched his ear raw. We have made an e collar for him and cleaned it daily and put antibiotic ointment on. Also a little cortisone. As you can see it does not appear he has mites inside his ear. What could this be and what over the counter treatment for healing do you recommend. As soon as we give him a break from the e collar he swipes at it and opens the would up again. It looks very raw but not infected. He is an indoor outdoor cat.

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2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Emily Fukuzato, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on May 15th, 2017

Hi, I am sorry to hear about Sparrow's ear. The inside of his ear looks clean as you have shown in the picture. The back/base of his ear unfortunately looks quite infected. It is great that you are keeping the Ecollar on to prevent him from scratching the ear. Sometimes topical treatment alone will not be able to heal this type of infection. The area looks very moist, either from infection or the ointment(s) that are being applied. Typically when cats have an infected area on their skin, we want the area dry and do not put on topical treatments. This wound would most likely heal very quickly with a visit to Sparrow's veterinarian. The doctor can clip and clean the wound with medical grade gentle cleansing solution and get Sparrow on antibiotics. The antibiotics (which needs a doctor prescription) is the main treatment to get this to heal. I cannot recommend any further over the counter treatments that would allow this to heal. I am sorry about that. I would recommend to keep him indoors only, keep the ecollar on, and hold off on the ointment so the area can dry up. The veterinary appointment can hopefully happen soon and Sparrow will be on his way to healing quickly. Best of luck.

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    Answered By Jessica Desrosiers

    Veterinary Technician

    Published on

    Ouch, poor Sparrow! Your best bet is to bring him into the vet to have the area looked at and a possible sample of the wound taken to check for issues such as infection from bacteria, yeast or fungus. Your vet may also want to thoroughly clean the wound for you and provide an oral antibiotic to help the wound heal. Until you can get to the vet, keeping the e-collar on is best to keep him from scratching at it more and causing further injury. Your vet will also likely recommend keeping the collar on until the area is completely healed to prevent re injury.

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