liquid in cats ear

Question
A few weeks ago I noticed that my cat was shaking his head rather violently, constantly had his ears down and scratching them. I normally clean his ears out with a tissue on the end of my finger, but this time it seemed as if he had water (or some liquid) in his ear that he couldn't get out (you could hear it when massaging the base of his ear). So after a search online I ruled out mites and I found a cleaning solution of water and vinegar and tried that. It seemed to work for a week or two then he started shaking his head again and looking all sorry for himself. The base of his ear was hot to the touch a few days ago so took him to the vet yesterday. They cleaned his ear out with some soapy solution and took tests saying it was only bacterial, charged me a fortune and sent me home with drops. It was about 12 noon when we got home, I expected the wash they used to evaporate after a few hours, but all last night and this morning he was/is shaking his poor lil' head violently trying to get liquid out. I thought it a tad odd he hadn't even touched breakie when I put it out, so went to say hello and put the drops in his ear, which unfortunately started another round of head shaking and eye leaking (because of him shaking his head so much) trying to get liquid out. After 15 minutes to let the drops *soak* in i grabbed him, using cottonwool and tissues cleaned his ears out hoping to get all of the liquid out that was left from the wash yesterday but I don't seem to have as he is walking around with his ears down, still shaking his poor lil' head and looking so very sorry for himself 24 hours later. I've been online ever since trying to find help on how to get liquid out of his ears but all I seem to find is info on cleaning ears and ear mites, and any liquid related questions I've found haven't really given answers. Then I found this site and thought I'd ask. I mean it can't hurt.
So what I'm asking is, since the wash they used didn't evaporate, would the wash have just made things worse as he gets some of the liquid out but not all because you can hear it when massaging his ear (and I got quite a bit from my clean), but there is still something in there. I don't much like the idea of him walking around with liquid in his ear, and I'm sure he isn't too impressed with it either, so how do I get all of that liquid out to stop the poor lil' guy shaking his head silly?

Thank you in advance for your time. :)

cami and zac

Answer
Your cat most likely has a middle ear infection and has a ruptured eardrum.  I would have him examined by a vet that has a video otoscope to properly flush out the middle ear.  If soap got into the middle ear cavity through a ruptured eardrum, it will only make the middle ear produce more liquid. He needs to have the middle ear suctioned out.  If there is a polyp in there, it may need to be removed.