So I took her to the vet and I had, what a consider really weird experience. The surgery came recommended by the way.
In UK, cats would go in once a year for a check up and the vet would clean their ears if needed, weigh them etc. Today, specifically I made an appointment saying I need Kalinda's ears cleaned and checked for mites etc.
The vet checked ears and run the tests and said there were no mites. She had no fleas either but he still recommended flea treatment saying even cats living on 50th floor need flea treatments just in case a flea gets into the apartment.
I used to get one flea treatment a year to make sure they have no mites but did not consistently treat them as they are indoor cats.
He said her ears have some wax and no infection but he thinks she might be producing wax because she is allergic to something and he actually have us good advice on that, to watch what makes her itchy.
I was cleaning her ears every couple of weeks recently whereas usually, a good once a year clean at the vet would last her a while so could well be allergy - I will try cutting out dry food as they often add yeast and sugars to it.
Despite allergy being the likely thing, I had to sign a disclaimer that I agree with what vet prescribes and he gave us some cortisol drops and flea treatment for some months. The bill was considerable.
He also advised that when bringing her in next time we call in advance and get anti convulsant medication as this makes them drowsy. I was pretty shocked to hear that a healthy animal who is, by the way, pretty good at the vet's should be given a medication to induce side effects. I also felt he was happy to send us home with lots of medication without really finding anything he gave us treatments for. I was uneasy arguing as I signed a disclaimer. I asked him to clean her ears - this was what I booked a visit for, and he said her ears were pretty clean (uhm, no there was lots of wax in them and I thought he would put drops in and clean them like our UK vet used to) and did not want to do it.
I felt quite bad about the whole thing.
I must say we took Nini to vet hospital when she swallowed sticky grass and they were great, but they are just emergency hospital, so I thought vet would do usual care things, like ear clean. They had a disclaimer but also an option to tick that any treatment has to be cleared by us first, which the vet today did not have.
Oh and he also said raw chicken was bad for them and asked me if I eat raw chicken myself and dismissed me saying cats stomachs can take bacteria we can't. So yeah... is this usual experience in USA? Where do you take cats to have ears cleaned for example? Feel a bit weird now. Kind don't want to go back.