Kitty - ear infection?

Question
Hi,

About 10 days ago I sent my 8 year old Maine Coon cat to the animal hospital to get groomed.  She had two mats that I could not get out on my own.  They told me they had to use isofluorene to sedate her in order to get the grooming done.  When she came to, she could not walk and had a severe head tilt.  Her left eye had the third eyelid partially up and she seemed disoriented.  The vet could not really tell me what would cause this.  She said that water must have gotten into her ear during the grooming.  After going home a sleeping, she seemed quite a bit better the next day.  He balance was better and she was able to walk.  The third eyelid also seemed to be mostly gone.  We brought her back to the vet because they wanted to check her out in the morning.  They gave us cortisone pills to give her to help with inflammation in the ear that they are assuming caused this.  We gave her the cortisone for two days but had to stop because it made her so sick to her stomach that she stopped eating.  We again brought her back to the vet and the doctor we saw that day hypothesized that her eardrum may have been ruptured during the ear cleaning.  He said he could not tell without putting her under anesthesia again so he could use an otoscope to look at the ear.  I did not want to put her under anesthesia again because I am nervous that she will react poorly to it.  Now, her appetite is ok, but her balance is off, she is sneezing and shaking her head and their seems to be dried black stuff in her ear.

My question is, so I let them put her under anesthesia again to check out her ear?  Should I bring her to someone who does not work at the hospital where she had her grooming done?  Is there any chance this was all brought on by too much anesthesia or a poor reaction to anesthesia?  I just want my kitty to be back to her normal self.  I mean, she can get around, but when she sneezes or shakes her head, she loses her balance.  I don't want to put her through more trauma.  I mean, its my fault she is going through this in the first place since she was a perfectly healthy cat until I decided to get her groomed.  Please help me figure out what the best course of action is for my kitty.  Oh, I forgot to add that her eye now seems to be oozing as well. And that when the vet first saw her after the grooming they called what she has "Horner's Syndrome."

Thank you so much for any help/insight you can provide.

Answer
If she was perfectly normal before the grooming visit, then my guess is that something probably perforated the eardrum....like a Q-tip.

The only way to know is to examine the eardrum.  Check around different vets to see if anyone has a video otoscope and have her examined.  They can do pictures of the eardrum for you.

If she had been sneezing before, then I would say that she may have had a middle ear infection and the eardrum just ruptured during the grooming.

Water in the ear by itself will not cause Horner's syndrome.  The nerves in the middle ear need to be disrupted to cause that.  Isoflurane anesthesia will not cause that either.