Vestibular cat now possibly deaf

Question
I have a himalayan mix breed cat, Squeekah, female spayed, approximate 10 years of age.  She is indoor only, has been her whole life.

Hx: diagnosed with Discoid Lupus via biospy at 1yr with severe erosion of nares and skin around nose.  Treated with steroid shots monthly for 6 month.  Taken off steroids for behavior reasons (side effects), erosion is watched and only treated if crusting is open and bleeding.  Erosion seems to have stabilized at a minor level, no tx needed for over 4 years.

Additional Hx: has a long history of black discharge in ears, and lots of it.  With bi-monthly external cleaning with cotton balls, thin black ear wax still builds easily and to visible levels to the point of crusting around external and back sides of pinna.  Has been tested and found negative for ear mites, bacterial, and fungal infections in ears several times over several years.

Was finally prescribed a mild ear cleaner from vet.  Cleaned ears thoroughly, using q-tips by technician.  Within 24hrs, cat was showing severe vestibular symptoms, became anorexic for several days, but close inspection with scope by vet (2 different vets) saw no rupture of ear drum.  Ear cleaner was discontinued and supportive care given with appetite stimulants and dramamine to help cat deal with vestibular syndrome.  

Cat recovered slowly, again, no rupture was found on follow up examinations of ears, and black discharge was still building up.  After 7 days, cat went vestibular again and within several hours, blood, crusting, and pus were seen in both ears and down sides of face.  Cat was cleaned up, given supportive anti-vertigo drugs, and put on oral antibiotics.

After treatment, I noticed that Squeekah was not responding to normal verbal signals, wouldn't hear us calling her for feeding times, etc.  She also had been a bit skittish with loud sounds and would now sleep right through them.  With some at home tests, we figure that she's now deaf.

Any thoughts?  Is the deafness permanent?  The vet had no explanation for the pussy discharge so long after the original incident and was skeptical of her now being deaf.  We haven't had her evaluated professionally for her deafness, but it is very clear to us - she gets startled if you touch her after calling her name, doesn't move her ears around anymore to stimuli (like cats constantly do), etc.  She still has that nasty black ear stuff crusting around her ears almost constantly.

Answer
It seems as if the cat has had a ruptured eardrum at some point.  This is usually from the q-tips used for cleaning.  The middle ear becomes inflammed and produces mucus and pus, sometimes with blood. That is most likely what is causing the vestibular signs.

Here's what I recommend:  Use Azithromycin (an antibiotic) for a week at 5 mg/lb once daily.  Also use the steroids in drop form.  I recommend Synotic.  Many cats have excessive wax production without infection.  We think that is because of allergies.  If there is no infection, then just accept the fact that your cat is a wax producer and periodically have the ears cleaned.  Regular cleaning ni a cat can be detrimental.