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How To Stop Your Cat Ear Tip Drooping!

With cats being the second most popular type of pet that people keep only being second to dogs, we see a huge number of people reaching out and asking questions about various issues with their cats each month.

These questions cover a wide range of different problems that people see with their cats but we have seen people asking about what causes a cat’s ear tip to start drooping a few times so we have decided to publish our own dedicated article going over the topic.

As with most things when it comes to pets, there is no clear one size fits all answer and there are actually three main causes of a drooping ear in cats and kittens.

In addition to the three most common causes, there are also a number of less common causes that can be difficult to diagnose.

We hope that our article going not only going to be able to help you better understand why your cat’s ear is drooping but also how you are able to treat the issue quickly.

As we are covering a number questions that we see people from the cat owning community asking on a regular basis in this article, we have decided to add a table of contents below to make it as easy as possible for our readers to navigate the article and skip to specific sections that they need answers to.

Why Has The Tip Of My Cats Ear Gone Floppy?

The three main reasons that your pet cats ear can start to droop are dehydration, a hematoma in the ear, and a hematoma in the ear that has developed to full-blown cauliflower ear.

There are less common causes of ear drooping in cats such as low blood pressure and damage to the blood vessels in your cat’s ears too.

Thankfully, if you catch it early enough, all causes of a drooping ear in cats other than the full-blown cauliflower ear hematoma are generally considered to be easy to treat.

Depending on the severity of a regular hematoma in your cat, your vet may recommend that you just leave your cats ear as it is with the slight droop due to the negatives of trying to fix it outweighing the positives.

Although not essential for most cases of a cat ear drooping, you are also able to book a quick video call with a veterinarian to have them check your cat over too.

These video calls with fully qualified veterinarians tend to be cheaper and quicker than a trip to your local vets while also providing the same information.

With most people living a busy life, the advantage of being able to book the video call in around your own busy schedule makes it much easier too.

Dehydration

Dehydration can be a common cause of drooping ears in cats, an easy way to tell if your cat’s ear is drooping due to being dehydrated is that the majority of the time, both cats ears will droop if the cause is dehydration.

Thankfully, this is a very easy cause to treat and you are able to make sure your cat drinks plenty of water and the drooping ear should clear up within a few hours.

Hematomas In The Ear

Hematomas are very common in cats due many leading an active lifestyle and it being common that they ears will take a couple of knocks.

These knocks can then damage the blood vessels in the ear causing a single ear to start to droop rather than both ears like with dehydration. Some hematomas will heal within a few weeks but others will develop into feline cauliflower ear.

Feline Cauliflower Ear

Feline cauliflower ear is a hematoma that has caused problems with your cats eat getting enough blood resulting in the eat drooping. This will often result in a build-up of solid cartilage in the ear that you will be able to feel if you touch it.

Most of the time there will be no serious issues due to having feline cauliflower ear other than the drooping ear but this condition usually is permanent.

How To Stop Your Cats Ear Tip Drooping!

The most common cause of a cat ear drooping is dehydration so simply getting your cat to drink plenty of water can be enough to return your cats ear to normal within hours.

The second most common cause of a cat eat tip drooping is a hematoma in the ear and some of these will heal themselves over a week or two with others not being treatable and developing into cauliflower ear.

Although low blood pressure and other problems with your cat’s blood can also cause a drooping ear in your cat, this does tend to be considerably rarer than the other common causes.

If you suspect that your cat’s ear is starting to droop due to issues with its blood pressure or other issues with its blood then we would recommend that you seek advice from a veterinarian as treatment options can be very specific depending on the exact problems.

There is often no need to worry if the drooping ear is due to low blood pressure in your cat though.

We have seen some treatments be as easy as switch your cat over to a specific type of cat food and then within weeks their blood pressure returns to normal and their ear stops drooping.

How Do I Stop My Cats Ears Drooping In The Future?

If your cats ear droops due to dehydration then ensuring that your cat always has access to clean water is the easiest way to stop your cat ear drooping in the future.

The other common causes of a drooping ear in cats are usually due to random circumstances though making it difficult to plan against them happening.

As we touched on above, cats are more prone to issues with hematomas due to them being much more active than dogs and other pet types.

Even a slight bump that hits your cats ear in the right place can cause a blood vessel to rupture resulting in a hematoma and the ear starting to droop.

It is too difficult to plan for all possible causes of even slight trauma to your cat’s ear so checking your cat on a regular basis for signs of a drooping ear and then trying to help their blood vessels heal before they develop into cauliflower eat is probably the best option.

Again though, this is difficult and the majority of our readers will not be able to do it.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over what your cat’s ear tip is drooping as well as how to treat the condition to an end. Unlike some cat owners think, a drooping ear in your cat is usually not a serious issue and has very few serious side effects. The majority of the time, the only symptom will be the drooping ear in your cat so many cat owners will simply choose to leave the ear as it is.