If both your cats have it this points to something in your house not being
cat friendly. Have you tried changing cleaning chemicals or things like that
and see if the cats' ears start to clear up?

Holy Christ, it sure sounds like ear mites to me.  This should have
been the first thing any vet would look for, so I assume it must be
something else, but you don't mention it, so...?

Charlie

My late cat Tiger had the brown wax problem for most of her life.  I don't
really remember any popping sound, though.  She had been seen by numerous
vets and I never got an answer about what it was.  She had her ears deep
cleaned many times and it would always come back, even if I tried to keep on
top of it and clean the ears myself periodically.  She didn't have fleas, it
wasn't mites.  Whatever tests they ran came back negative most of the time.
One time one vet said it tested positive for some bacteria and she was given
antibiotics but IT DIDN"T HELP.  The poor cat lived with it for years.  When
it got really bad she would spend her entire day scratching her ears,
causing dozens of little csabby sores to form on her head and around her
ears.  She'd get them cleaned out and it would come back evetually.  One vet
also said it was just wax and his opinion was "If it doesn't bother her, it
doesn't bother me".  I guess he missed my whole speech about how she was
making herself bleed, was walking funny and cried in pain whenever she
scratched.

In the last few years of her life she did develop what looked like warts or
pimples in one ear, probably because she had been battling it for so long.
Her last cleaning was December 2005 and she passed away in March 2006.  At
the time of her death her ears were still in pretty good condition but I
know that wouldn't have lasted long.

Other people have posted about the same exact problem and I don't think any
of us ever got a real asnwer from a vet about it.

--
Liz

Man, that sounds exactly like a chronic ear infection. Oral antibiotics
don't reach the ear well, did he have oral and ear drops? Some vets
recommend steroids with the treatment to help open up the ear canal.

Our cat had a chronic infection for a few months, complete with a
crackling sound at times when he itched his ear. It's the waxy, pus
stuff in there. The vet put him under anesthesia and got a deep culture,
 basically got a sample of stuff from the middle ear and sent it in.
She also saw that the infection had reached (or started) in his middle
ear and had taken away his eardrum.

Anyway, I would try to find a very good vet who will get to the bottom
of it. Maybe call the Humane Society or a cat rescue organization and
get a recommendation. For Bear, we are looking at a huge, expensive
middle ear surgery. The ear surgeon we consulted with said most times
when one middle ear is infected, the other is too. Bear only has one,
thank God.

At the very least, your cat needs another culture. Our cat had a
different organism in the middle ear than he did in the outer ear. The
middle ear bacterial (staph) was resistant to the baytril drops we were
using.

Good luck.

Rhonda