Dog and Cat Ears

"An inflammation of the ear canal is called otitis. Most lay people call this an ear infection, and many times, an infectious microbial agent is involved, but occasionally the root of the problem is something other than a primary infection.

Dog and cat ears are built a little differently than human ears, but the variations are fairly minor. The ear flap is called the pinna. Below that is the canal leading to the eardrum, or tympanum.

Cat pinnae are fairly uniform from cat to cat and breed to breed. They are triangular and stand upright in almost all cats. Some purebred cats will have a distinct fold in the pinna that causes the flap to lie flat against the head and cover the ear canal. These cats are relatively rare and most of the time a cat with a folded ear will have suffered some injury that has healed poorly."