Reddish Black Eye Boogers

mai_kitties

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My little runty boy Max always gets eye boogers that are reddish black. His nose always accumulates a dark almost black booger as well.

At his last vet visit the Vet did not seem concerned about this and indicated that some cats have this problem. We just clean his eyes and nose daily but it seems like we can't get rid of some of the staining on his eyelids. He also just really hates having his face cleaned every day.

He is active and playful and the eye boogers don't seem to bother him. I'm just concerned because the one eye seems to have a lot more drainage than the other eye.

He is going Saturday to the vaccination clinic for his next round of shots so while I trust my normal vet, I may ask the vet at the clinic what she thinks as well.

In the meantime do any of you have cats with reddish black eye boogers. I have heard that some breads get this like Persians but this is the first time I have seen a normal old tabby house cat with it. Should I be more worried?
 

GoldyCat

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Goldy, my little stray orange tabby has the same thing. Her kittens did as well when they were really little, but not much any more. The vet said that normal cat tears and mucous will dry to the dark red/brown. I never noticed it on my other kitties. I'm not sure if they didn't have it or it just didn't show up on their darker fur and noses. Anyway, everybody I've talked to seems to think it's normal. Just keep it cleaned off once in a while.

I haven't noticed any staining on my kitties so can't help you much with that. Maybe you could post in the breeder's forum. Some of the people who show cats may be able to tell you what they use.
 

jellybella

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I regularly clean brownish eye boogers off of Stan. I'm lucky that he's so laid back he lets me. The vet is not concerned because we know in Stan's case that an early severe URI has damaged his sinuses and his eyes probably don't drain as well as others. He also has breathing problems from this and gets regular Lysine to control feline herpes (he came from a hoarding situation).


I understand that cats with flatter faces (like Persians) can also have chronic eye staining.

You didn't mention if you know your cat's early history, something could have damaged his sinuses? In any case, this is not a huge issue in our house, I just look to make sure the volume of eye gunk doesn't go up because that usually means the herpes is flaring up. We usually don't see nose gunk unless he's got a URI/herpes flair up.
 
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mai_kitties

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Thanks for the replies.

I was worried a bit about feline herpes. I am going to ask about that when I see the clinic vet tomorrow.

As for his sinuses he did have a very bad ear infection caused by ear mites. It took a few weeks before it finally cleared up with meds. It has crossed my mind that the infection could have damaged his sinuses and now he just has a lot of eye drainage.

I guess I will see what the clinic vet has to say.
 

jack31

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Harley has an issue with them--he's a herpes kitty. They were really starting to get bad lately so we've been giving L-lysine everday and they are decreasing drastically. He may end up having to be on a constant maintenance dosage of l-lysine--which is perfectly fine, he has no issue with me adding it to his wet food at night.

Leslie
 

jblady with cat

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l-Lisine? is it an over the counter pill or powder form? or a pet store brand? I've seen it in Kitten replacer milk. Let me know where you got it, I'ld like to try it on him.

My rescue Persian (standard flat face) Ewok has eye and nose discharge of that brown reddish/black color.

He lets me clean his face but sometimes this nose discharge is hard to clean out.

 
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