However black dark brown or irregularly pigmented discharge in a cat s ears accompanied by a foul smell is a red flag to a health problem.
Cats ears smell sour.
Musty smelling yeast infections sometimes develop when a cat has an allergy or other condition that alters the environment within the ear in a way that promotes the growth of yeast.
They are not dangerous but they need to be treated before they get worse.
If the ears have a mild odor or look a little dirty moisten a cotton ball with a mild cleaning solution recommended by your veterinarian and wipe them out.
In a healthy cat the ears will have very little ear wax and the discharge will be a light brownish color.
Common causes when your cat s ears are healthy they re pink and clean inside have no smell have very little or no wax and seem able to detect the sound of a can opener from a.
The healthy discharge will have no smell and be accompanied by a pink clean inner ear canal.
If you bent over to pet your cat and noticed your cat has smelly ears and possibly other related symptoms including itchy or dirty gunky ears your cat has a common ear infection.
To appropriately treat an ear infection a veterinarian first has to microscopically examine a sample taken from the ears to determine whether yeast or bacteria and.
If your vet has ruled out ear mites the culprit in about half of all feline ear infections they ll have to do some sleuthing to figure out what s causing your cat s outer or middle ear.
Ear odor most feline ear infections also have odors associated with them.
If you clean them too often especially if they don t need it it can damage the ears health.
A cat s ears have an amazing ability to clean themselves.
Ear infections often cause a cat s ears to become more red and swollen than do mite infestations and the discharge from an infected ear tends to have a distinctly foul odor.