Herpes Eye Infection in Sad Kitten

I foster moms and kittens and have been doing this for years. My current litter came to me at 3 weeks old with very bad URIs- probably herpes. They are all much better and now 7 weeks old. One of the kitten's eye was hit particularly hard. She had a terrible conjunctivitis that was so severe, she couldn't open her eye for 10 days. During those ten days I had given her eye drops and ointments (terramycin, gentamycin, gent with steroid) etc. She saw a vet who said that I couldn't do anything else. Meanwhile, the kitten became very unhappy. She used to be sweet and loving, now she was afraid to go near me, since 3-4 times a day I was cleaning and putting stuff in her eye. She is, unfortunately, the most high strung kitten in the litter and really hated being medicated. I stopped medicating her since I feared her eye was relatively hopeless, but her personality was still being formed. Finally her eye opened again as she got better. The conjunctivitis is much better. However, she has a lot of scarring on the eye and continues to have some discharge and squiniting. I took her back to a vet today and he said it looks like she has corneal ulcers/herpes keratitis, some conjunctivitis, and presumably little or no vision in that eye. He recommended I start medicating her with the same antibiotic drops again (that didn't help before). I know herpes keratitis can be a painful condition. What is worse, medicating her and making this high strung, fragile 7 week old kitten miserable and hate humans or doing nothing to a serious and painful eye infection? She is much happier and more loving since I have been medicating her sporadically over the last 10 days.

Thanks for the ideas. They have all completed 10 days of oral clavamox and had been on lysine (although I have been a little lax giving the lysine in the last week since they are 95% better). I had already promised to be better with the lysine after my appointment today (and just gave it to them before I checked the computer!). The problem with her is that she hates being restrained to be medicated. She fights and squirms and meows. Drops are harder to get in than ointment since she closes her eye. While she seems to have discomfort when I put in the drops, that is only half the problem. The other part is that she hates the process of being medicated. That is what I don't know how to resolve! I don't think more oral antibiotics will help, I think it is more of a viral process causing the problems and not as much a bacterial process, but there may be a part of bacterial superinfection.

I am not using the steroid anymore. That was after the first vet said he saw no ulcers at that time. I was afraid to use it long anyways. So I am using just antibiotics without steroids which was confirmed by the second vet. She doesn't mind taking oral meds (when I hide it in food), the biggest problem is the eye drops. Those she hates. I have thought about enucleation and am not opposed to it in the future if the vet doesn't think she will have sight and the ulcers persist and the vet feels it is indicated. Thanks for all of your advice!