Cats Ear problem

Question
My cat has had a problem with her ear for quite a few months.  She isn't ill and is eating well, and the ear seems to play up intermittently.  Sometimes it she shows obvious discomfort when she is stroked if you touch anywhere near the ear.  I took her to our vet and they operated thinking she had a polyp.  However, it turned out the ear was ulcerated.  They cleaned it out and put her on antibiotics.  As we had difficulty getting her to take the tablet or medicine forms, she needed to have a course of injections.  He gave her a prolonged course in an attempt to keep the problem at bay, however it did say that this problem would continue to flare up from time to time.  The ear seems to be bothering her more again recently, and she was shaking her head after eating as though she had something caught in her teeth/mouth.  She has done this in the past, and I am wondering if there may be a connection.  I seems to me that while her ear was better, she hasn't had the discomfort following eating either.  The vet gave me an anti-inflammatory to put a couple of drops daily in her food, and I am wondering if it would be helpful to try that in the first instance.  I would be grateful for any advice you can offer - she gets distressed when she needs to be taken to the vet and I have had to take her fairly often as she also has aczema, though this has been good for over a year now.

Many thanks,

Karen Williams.

Answer
I would have the vet check the back of the throat to see if there is a nasopharyngeal polyp or tonsillitis there.  You can also have her tympanic bullae X-rayed to see if there is fluid or tissue in the middle ear. These procedures require anesthesia, so you can give a heavy tranquilizer at home to calm her for the trip to the vet prior to the anesthetic.

If the steroids helped, then you can have an injection every week or two until the inflammation subsides.  IF there is facial eczema, then this might be a food allergy.