Beth (Austin, Texas) on 03/21/2017:

I noticed my beloved fur ball Violet had gunk around her one ear. Not really scratching at it, but also recalling last year when this happened it was ear mites, which I took her to the vet for. We did that gel, plus Revolution. Right now a $200+ vet bill is out of the question. So I googled. And y'all came up. And I started reading ... and cleaning her ear .. and reading.

I started with colloidal silver in the ear, and internally. Kept reading. Saw the olive oil/garlic. My husband is a naturopathic GP ... so we have lots of remedies around the house. Grabbed the ear drops that had the olive oil and garlic, plus something else. At this point her ear starts to look worse. She's scratching more, and the exterior in front of the ear is looking really irritated. So I keep reading, and reading, and reading. Ted's formula keeps coming up. I had to get to the store to get Borax, but I had peroxide at home. So I started cleaning her ear with straight 3% peroxide. As a rule, I don't like peroxide on an animal's ears. It's very very drying to tender skin. BUT ... I needed to get something going better. I used cotton pads (Shiseido, expensive but worth it. They don't shed, they're strong, and they are SUPER soft.) soaked but not dripping, then q-tips. It hurt. Her ear was bright red and I thought I did some real damage. I left her alone for the night and checked her the next day. Blood crusts, her ear was loaded with them. Which told me something in the right direction was happening. I bathed her using Dawn, paying attention to butt and feet. She has long hair - we think Norwegian Forest cat- so you have to work thoroughly to make sure it gets to the skin.

I got the borax, and read more. I needed to know if I could use it directly in the ear. Yay Ted!! YES I COULD. I mixed up a 1/2 batch, storing it in a glass jar in a drawer. For the last 3 nights I've soaked cotton pads and worked them inside her ear to loosen everything, then used q-tips. Violet has a "pocket" in her ear that was holding a lot of crust. The first night she wouldn't let me get anywhere near this pocket. The next night I started on the pocket with a q-tip before cleaning the ear with the pads. Success!!! She was in less pain, so I had more time to work with it. I pulled out a lot of crust. After cleaning it as thoroughly as I could, I took a dropper and put in 3 or 4 drops in the ear directly -- 2 into that pocket -- and massaged the ear then let her shake. Last night, very little crust, pocket still pretty clean. We're in the right direction.

My husband is going to fashion me a "cone of shame" so we can make sure she stays wet long enough for the solution to dry into the skin (which is what Revolution does). Then the dog will get done. I plan on keeping this up for at least a month, and treating the carpet.

I just noticed behind the ear she had matted hair "dred locks" and she's scratching behind that ear .. so it's going to be a Ted bath tonight. At least I know this is the right direction. If it happens again .. and it probably will .. I will go straight for Ted's solution. I don't think the oil etc did what was needed. So thank you one and all for all of your comments!!! Your comments gave me the direction I needed to go in!!!