How do you clean your cat’s dirty ears?

The ears of a cat are often forgotten to clean. Nevertheless, it is important to also pay attention to the care of your cat’s ears.

How do you clean your cat's dirty ears? Catmom official


Every cat has earwax, that comes natural.

It becomes a bit annoying if your cat produces too much earwax. Walking around with too much earwax for too long can lead to an ear infection. Too much earwax can also cause your cat’s ears to smell real bad. You can never look into the entire ear, but if you take the tip of the ear and bring the flap of the ear to its skull, you can easily look into your cat’s ear. An ear of your cat is clean if it is light pink in color, there is not too much ear wax in it and it has no unpleasant odor. If the ears look clean and there are no medical complaints, it is not necessary to clean your cat’s ears.

Never use a cotton swab.

If you are going to clean your cat’s ear, never use a cotton swab, as this simply pushes the earwax further into the ear and you don’t want that. Also never use water, this can remain in the ear and cause unpleasant fungi.

Special ear cleaners for cats are available. Do not just go clean your cat or drip cleansing drops into his ear do this in consultation with the vet. Good ear cleansing drops are slightly astringent and dry quickly.


Clean your cat’s ears in 8 steps

Make sure the cat is as relaxed as possible

If you have the chance, clean the cat’s ears with 2 people.

It is most pleasant for your cat if the ear drops are not too cold, room temperature is the most pleasant.

The person holding the cat can hold the tip of his ear and bring it to his skull in the same way that you inspect the ears. In this way it is most easy to drip because there is enough space.

Drop the prescribed amount into your cat’s ear

Let the drops do their job for 45 seconds before you start with the other ear.

If your vet tells you to clean the ear too, do this with a cotton ball or gauze, do not clean too deep in the ear, do this carefully and do not apply too much pressure. Your cat’s ears are very sensitive and you don’t want to damage anything.

Reward your cat with treats after dripping and leave your cat alone after dripping

If you see blood after cleaning this is not a good sign, just contact the vet.

If your cat is bothered by his ears, there may be more going on

Does your cat scratch his ears a lot and shakes his head a lot? Then there may be more going on.

The causes can be, for example: Ear mites, small parasites that are located at the entrance of your cat’s ear. This is highly contagious, be careful with other pets.

Ear infection: if you have ever had ear infection yourself, you know that this can be very painful. Unfortunately this is no different for your cat and he will also have a lot of problems with this. If your cat scratches his ear a lot (because of the itchiness) has a lot of earwax, flakes or if his ears are red in color, this can be a sign of an ear infection.

The vet can determine if your cat is suffering from one of the above problems in his ear.