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My cat has a bacterial ear infection. Are cortisone drops enough?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Domestic Longhair | Male | neutered

My cat has an ear infection, diagnosed by a vet as bacterial. She provided cortisone drops. Will cortisone drops help a bacterial infection?

3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

Published on July 31st, 2017

No, cortisone drops alone will not treat a bacterial infection. Many ear drops have a combination of cortisone along with an antibiotic and/or an antifungal medication, so it's possible that this is the type of ear drop that was prescribed. If you have the specific name of the drop, we can tell you for sure what's in it :)

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Lauren Kennedy, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Cortisone drops will help with the swelling, inflammation, and itchiness of the ears but it will not treat the infection itself. Oftentimes ear drops have both a steroid and antibiotic in it, so the drops you have may be enough. If you would like to post another question with the listed ingredients we can better help you determine if there are antibiotics in the drops.

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    Answered By Jenna Beyer, DVM, MBA, cVMA

    Veterinarian, Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist

    Published on

    Cortisone will not kill bacteria, it will only help with inflammation and pain. Many of the ear medications we use in pets have mutiple ingredients, commonly a steroid (cortisone), and antibiotic, and an antifungal. You may double check the label to see if there are additional ingredients in the medication. I would double check with your vet that Clyde was given the correct medication. It is possible he was given an injection of antibiotic, or that his primary infection was caused by a mite, in which case he would need a mite treatment instead of an antibiotic.

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