Cat - tips of ears turning horrible :(

[MagicMelon]

I've had one of my bengals for about 3 years, I got her when she was roughly 2 or 3 months old. She's a grey marbled, I don't know if that makes her pigment different (like it does with a horse). Basically she started getting slightly scabby tips of her ears, took her to the vets numerous times and they just kept saying they thought it was mites - she was treated for mites several times but the scabby bits would keep coming back, yet they'd clear up a bit for ages then come back (so couldn't be mites I kept telling them). Anyway, despite taking her to 3 different vets for regular vaccs and getting them to look at her ears - none of them ever seemed concerned and didn't want to suggest any treatment. I thought it was/is a sun allergy as it seems to get worse when she's been lying out in the sun or even on the windowsil in the sun. The tips of her ears have now thickened I assume due to the scabbiness over the past while. The tips aren't scabby at all right now, but the thickened skin is now making her ear tips droop down due to the weight. I had a vet out the other day to vaccinate my horse and her at the same time and she was really quite concerned about it saying she'd never seen a cat with the problem and we should look into it further asap. She's booked in for a general anaesthetic on Thursday for a biopsy, but vet thinks it could be an auto-immune disease??

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this? If she does have an auto-immune disease, what is the outcome/prognosis?

 

[asmp]

Sorry - don't want to alarm you but my vet warned me that my cat's crusty ears were down to skin cancer as he had white ears. Saying that, he lived to the grand age of 17.

 

[MagicMelon]

Sorry - don't want to alarm you but my vet warned me that my cat's crusty ears were down to skin cancer as he had white ears. Saying that, he lived to the grand age of 17.

Thing is, she doesn't have white ears - her colouring is dark grey with black marble through it, hence her ears seem to be black pigmentation and not pink so I was hoping she wouldn't be prone to something as awful as cancer

And the odd thing is that they aren't always crusty, just very occassionally but the skin has thickened so right now they are smooth but just with fat ends...

 

[EmmaC78]

Does she scratch at them? If not I would suspect it is not ear mites. Sunburn was the first thing that crossed my mind. I hope it is nothing too serious.

 

[MagicMelon]

Does she scratch at them? If not I would suspect it is not ear mites. Sunburn was the first thing that crossed my mind. I hope it is nothing too serious.

Nope, never scratches them and they never seem to have bothered her. I thought sunburn too, but because she's had me treat her for mites so much she now absolutely hates me touching them (hence the general anaesthetic at vets this week) so I certainly couldn't put sun cream on them