Kitten eye trouble?

Hi everyone.
We had 4 beautiful kittens (well the cat did!) on July 7.
One of the kittens eyes opened up on Friday this past week. He seemed to be doing fine. However, I had to go away for the night last night and when I came back, 1 eye was open and the other one shut - but strange shut. I'm not sure I can describe it. Almost like it was never open or like he somehow got hurt. Can anyone shed any light on this? I - VERY GENTLY - took some water and carefully and ever so gently wiped over the area because it almost looked crusted or something yet not like it had been oozing or anything. It's very hard to explain.
Also, another 1 of the cats - something is definatly not right with the eyes. Now, her eyes have not opened yet and neither have the rest of the kittens except the one mentioned above. But something just doesn't look right. They look kind of crusted over, maybe like there is nothing there. The other kittens, you can see the slits and it looks normal - but not this one. How do I know if this is a blind cat? If so, is there any special care?
Thanks for any help you can give me.
Tami

Hmmm....crusted eyes, in my experience, means a URI(Upper Respiratory Infection) or else an eye infection. I strongly reccomend that you take mom & babies to the vet ASAP. An eye infection can be treated, but the longer you let it go the worse it will be. My two foster kittens went untreated....they are now 9 weeks old & have been on an array of eye ointments & drops for the past 5 weeks of their lives. And they still aren't healed, at least another 10 days.

At a week or 2 old, the litter will begin opening up the eyes slowly, and each one can be individual. Some times as the eyes open, they will water, creating crust to close the eye, continue to clean the eye starting closest to the eye and out, this is most likely not a problem, and once fully opened, will not close again.
However, if you begin seeing all the kittens having eyes close with crust covering it, or if it becomes associated with sneezing, a call to your vet would be needed. Tell the vet the age of kittens, and if it is needed to bring in the kittens, ask for a separate room to be set up, to minimize introducing anything to Mom or babies.
Taking the Mom and kittens at this age is risky, as they are young and immune systems have not yet developed, but at times this is a must. At this point, it would be my opinion to wait to see if this develops into a viral infection, as at this point, I would feel it just to be the normal course of kittens development and timing on each eye opening. Again, if it gets worse or sneezing develops a call to the vet is needed.
Best Wishes.

All my new kittens about a month ago were born with sickly eyes. I didnt have money to go to the vet so I just washed their eyes daily with water (about 3 times a day). Slowly, they all got better except two, which I admit were semi-neglected since they usually hid. Now, one of them is alright, eyes half-crusty, and the other is still ill. The rest of the kittens have perfect eyes and are not sick at all.

I think infections can be treated quickly but if you cant go to the vet, just continue to wash their eyes, very gently of course, at least 3 times a day or rather, any time you see them becoming crusty. I also used eye drops that I had from a previous vet visit (for another cat) and it also helped.

Originally Posted by Helga06

All my new kittens about a month ago were born with sickly eyes. I didnt have money to go to the vet so I just washed their eyes daily with water (about 3 times a day). Slowly, they all got better except two, which I admit were semi-neglected since they usually hid. Now, one of them is alright, eyes half-crusty, and the other is still ill. The rest of the kittens have perfect eyes and are not sick at all.

I think infections can be treated quickly but if you cant go to the vet, just continue to wash their eyes, very gently of course, at least 3 times a day or rather, any time you see them becoming crusty. I also used eye drops that I had from a previous vet visit (for another cat) and it also helped.

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Your advice is appreciated. I just wanted to mention that using eye drops or cream from another cat can be dangerous. One reason would be because of the medication expiring, or it could be a different type of eye infection. Some medications that are used for certain eye issues have steroids, which if given to the wrong eye issue can cause more damage.
For instance we had a litter born who had a crusty eye, we spoke with another breeder who mentioned to treat it as an URI, we didn't, we went to our vet first and found out it was a scratch to the eye, which was treated with a different medication than what an URI. The original poster didn't mention that the kittens were born with this, from what it sounds like it "may" just be the normal course of a newborn opening the eyes, but I very well could be wrong, I just feel it may be best to wait a few more days, before taking Mom and babies to the vet, if it isn't a URI, if it does turn into showing other symptoms, than I would say the vet is the best choice. I am not a vet, I am just speaking from experiences.
I wish you well with your kittens.