Blocked Tearduct

sonia

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The beautiful cat we took on a couple of months ago, whom I love to bits, has a constantly running eye. Pau did have an eye infection shortly after we bought him home. So the vet put him on antibiotics. This calmed down the inflammation beautifully, but the runny eye never really stopped. The only time it is clear is when he is hunting something like a peice of paper, getting up to mischief, or playing.

The eye runs with a discoloured fluid or a gungy substance, but there is no infection currently. It is only the one eye too. Mostly Pau sits around winking, so it does seem to irrate him a little, and he shies away when you try to touch that eyelid, but is fine with the other side.

The vet said it was a blocked tearduct, and he can try to flush it through, or widen the tearduct surgically. Has anyone any experience of blocked tearducts, and/or the pros and cons of surgery, or any advice I can try to keep his eye from streaming.

Many Thanks
Peace, Love, and Happiness, Always
Sonia
 
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sonia

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Pau, showing his sore eye, at rest.
 
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sonia

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After a game of unwrap the Christmas present, a few minutes later, his eye is clear. A few minutes after that, it was running again.
 

julieb

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We have a 6 month old who has a blocked tear duct, probably due to an infection when she was only a week or so old. The vet did a test (squirted some sort of yellowish flourescent liquid through and looked at it under a special light) to determine that it was blocked, but does not know if it is a foreign body or a defect. Elsa's goopiness also seems to get better and worse, but I never tied it to activity. Her eye doesn't get puffy or closed or winky or anything, she just either has a big eye goop, or not.

She is going in to get fixed next week, and they will have a better look then, when she is "out", as she is an extremely jumpy little cat (the vet has nicknamed her "popcorn" for the way she sits still and then hits the roof when under stress). If it is a foreign body, they will just flush it out, but if her duct ended up growing wrong, I'm not sure what we'll do. It doesn't seem to bother her at all, and has not been infected since the initial time, so maybe surgery wouldn't change her life too much. I'm hoping it's just something stuck in there...

I'll let you know what happens with my little one, but if I was you, I'd give the flushing a try, maybe it will work. If your cat is fairly calm, maybe they won't have to put him all the way out, but surgery is another matter entirely, in my opinion.

Well, I haven't said much new, but I hope it helps...
 
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