Not you, I mean, but scrapings under a microscope? Maybe they can develop an allergy from "mite bites"?

Now, I'M NOT A VET. And I have NEVER stayed in a Holiday Inn Express. So research this first

The allergy thing is as good a probability as anything. It could be the food, but Benadryl is a common anti-allergy medication, and is cheap.

You should ask the vets here, but if it is an allergy can cats take over-the-counter Benadryl? Open capsule and mix into Fancy Feast?

That would just be a trip to (man I hate to say this) Walmart.

You might call around and see if you can find a cat vet that specializes. I know it's more money, but you might get better answers.

Found this link - BUT DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071113103912AASbJbe

but are there. It could also be an infection, bacterial or yeast, as well as an allergy. The TriTop was for bacterial infection, so if it did not work, that takes it out of the diagnosis. Tresaderm is an anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, and a parasiticide. I am surprised that this gave no satisfactory results, so it sounds like you are left with some sort of allergy.

What do you see when you look in the ears? Are they dirty? Is this affecting both ears or just one? Is there any odor? Sometimes, a swab has to be taken and checked under a microscope to be sure it is not mites, or if it is an infection and what the infection is from. It sounds like your vet is trying the right things. I am not a vet, or a medical professional, so I can only tell of my own personal experiences.

I have a cat who has had ear problems, and I use ear wipes that I got from the pet store weekly to keep them clean. I don't know if it was a good idea or not, but I also used warm olive oil dropped in the ear to soothe it.

I know you hate to keep spending money on this issue, but it is important to get this fixed. You could end up with a deaf cat if it continues for a prolonged period.

That's one of the reasons that I used to coat my dog that had SA with olive oil and let it soak in for about an hour or so before bathing him to deal with his SA. SA (sebaceous adenitis) is a skin condition that certain breeds of dogs can be prone to and is passed down through the genes. A dog can either not get it even with the genetics, get it or be a carrier but never get any symptoms. The condition is damaging to the oil glands of the skin. At first they don't produce enough oil, and as time goes by they shut down completely. This causes dead skin cells to not slough off, massive hair loss, intense inching that brings on bleeding sores that most often become infected, and a propensity for skin infections even with treatment. The only remedy is to manually replace the natural oils in the skin with some other kind of oil (preferably natural and lacking in perfumes and other chemicals) and just coat the whole dog in oil, let it soak in for an hour or two and then wash the dog with a mild shampoo to get out most of it roughly every two or three weeks.

I was happiest using olive oil because it was cheap to buy by the gallon sized drum, any he consumed by licking at it I didn't have to worry about it being dangerous to him, and because of the anti-fungal properties since he was so prone to both bacterial and fungal infections. The most difficult part was keeping an eye on him so he wouldn't lick at himself while coated with oil for the time that it had to soak in. In nice weather that was easy since I could just distract him with a walk, but in the heat of the summer and cold of the winter we had to do it all indoors, so I usually coated him with the oil in the bathtub, had him lay down on the bathroom floor that I covered with old newspapers to soak up most the oil to make cleaning the floor afterward easier, and I'd sit on the potty and read to him out load whatever book I was reading. Of course, I had to do different voices for each character and make it sound exciting to keep him interested, but it made the time go by.

Other than him smelling a bit like a pizza most of the time from using the olive oil (though using the extra light oil took care of most of the stink) it worked like a dream. All his itchy sores went away and he grew back about 80% of his hair. He never did grow any hair back on most of his tail though since by the time we found out about the oil treatments after trying everything else under the sun with no luck at all the hair follicles in most of his tail had already shut down and couldn't produce hair anymore. So, most of his tail ended up having big bald spots and was really sparsely haired kind of like an old man with really thinning hair.

Though a few times we had some minor setbacks with hair loss and itching again, and a couple of times another skin infection he never did get a fungal infection with using the olive oil. I just got used to him smelling like a pizza most of the time. It was a million times better than the stink of a bacterial or fungal infection though!

In any case, using olive oil in your kitty's ears will probably help in staving off fungal infections as long as you're careful to not get it down into the ear canal. My vet used to treat and clean the insides of my SA doggie's ears since I couldn't do it as he hated having his ears messed with and would violently shake his head... ok, and I was just too scared I'd end up getting oil down too far into his ears, so I let the vet do it while I held his head still. He had told me that olive oil had natural anti-fungal properties, so using that on his skin for his oil soaks every few weeks was much better than using baby oil or something like that aside from the pizza smell. He also said that with his skin condition that if he licked a little of the oil it was actually good for him since it would help internally to produce more oil for his skin. I just had to be careful that he never got more than a few licks in or he'd get an upset stomach and the trots.

You might want to send her/him a PM and ask what you might be able to do or what you shouldn't do. I think the name here is kestrel91316. I'd start that way. You might get some good suggestions or at least some advice on what the best course would be.

I don't know much of anything about kitties myself, but have you considered it might be something simple like fleas? I wish I knew what to suggest. Skin irritations in dogs I know can be sooooo many different things. It wouldn't surprise me to find it's the same with cats. Sometimes all you can really do is try the most obvious and just keep going down the list of what it could be and ruling things out as you go. I went through a similar nightmare with having my first dog diagnosed with SA... they had to start with mites and other bug bites, allergies, etc. and finally did a skin biopsy to confirm the possibility of SA. Unfortunately, that's what it did turn out to be, but in a way it was just a relief to finally find out what the hell it was while still trying to get him some relief.

I know how frustrating this is. Especially when you just can't afford all the vet visits and testing. You should probably continue using the drops fro the vet so at least with all the scratching your kitty is doing you won't have to worry about it causing infection. Even with the kitty being such a picky eater, I'd still ask the vet what sort of food to use if it is allergies and try to get kitty switched in case that's the problem. Food allergies I know in dogs are a right damn pain in the bum to get figured out what they're allergic to and how long it takes after getting their diet altered to see a change. With a pet that's such a picky eater, yeesh, what a problem! All animals will eventually eat what food they're given rather than starve though they may not be enthusiastic about it and give you the stink eye at meal times and even be willilng to starve themselves for a couple of days first in protest. My first dog was a real picky eater, and before he was diagnosed with SA and we thought it might be an allergy I thought I'd freak out. Just thinking about going through switching his food as picky and stubborn as he was made me go pale.

In any case, I'd ask your vet if you should continue with the drops or try something else or what the next step would be and ask kestrel here if he/she has any suggestions or can at least point you the right direction.

Good luck with helping your kitty. I know, it really sucks to see them suffer and not have anything work or worse not be able to afford to keep looking for the right answer. Been there many times, and it's both frustrating and heartbreaking.

I would look into a product called Allerderm. It is available without a prescription and has helped a couple of mine with itchy skin, etc.

I am not sure it would help your kitty, but would be worth a few minutes of googling to see what you think.

if it's a fungal infection, it make take a long, long time to clear up. I had a dog (who passed on 5 years ago - miss him like crazy) who had constant fungal infections in his ears. He did the same thing - constant scratching and sometimes crying or whining while he scratched. His ears looked red and inflamed. We were given a run-of-the-mill antifungal cream. It did nothing to help. So we were 'upgraded' to something stronger. It worked initially, but when we ran out, the infection was back within a few weeks.

For awhile we played this stupid game of buying the meds, using them till we ran out. Ears would look fine, then gradually they'd start getting bad again. Finally, after asking my vet if there was anything we could do and getting a brush off of "some dogs with floppy ears will just always have this problem" I switched vets. Our new vet was excellent - he looked at the ears, and gave us a really 'drying' antibacterial/anti-fungal ear wash to get rid of water and wax (which exacerbates the fungal growth) as well as some really strong anti-fungal liquid and also some powder to help get all the ear hairs out (the ear hairs retain moisture). We were also given the instructions to clean and dry ears thoroughly after a bath (with the 'wash' and cotton balls, and a blow-dryer). It worked. We got rid of the fungal infection completely, finally. For the first time in years, his ears were pink instead of red, thin instead of puffy. Poor Rosco only lived another year and a half after we got rid of the infection, so I can't say for sure if it would've come back eventually.

Not saying this is what your kitty has...especially because I was told this issue mostly plagues floppy-eared breeds. But it's worth a shot to try a stronger anti-fungal if nothing else works.

My 15 year old cat is not scratching or her ear is not red from irritation, however, I noticed what appears to b dirt in her ear (only one). I looked up home remedies, and have been putting a drop of olive oil in her every other day this week, and wipe it out with a cotton swab. Have no way to tell if they are mites, but it doesn't seem to bother her for me to do this, no shaking her head or scratching. I did notice the black sand working its way to the outer ear today. I also noticed when I wiped it out today, the black "dirt" now looked like red specs on the cotton. She still doesn't seem to be irritated by it. Am going to continue to keep them clean, hoping it clears up using his method, as am retired and also on a limited income. One commonality to one post in this thread is that the only canned food she will eat is the Friskies shredded chicken prima Vera and others similar in that brand and only chicken. That make me wonder......