For the past 4 years, we have gone back & forth with Diamond's eyes. Up until she was 3, she was perfectly healthy. Then, 4 years ago, she got a corneal ulcer in a fight with her big brother.
Ever since then, she has had itchy, inflamed, goopy conjunctiva & third eyelids. We've done the hypoallergenic foods, topical eye antibiotics/steroids, oral steroids...the only thing that truly takes her itching away is injected steroids. The problem was that she did get diabetes as a result. We took her sugar every day & got her insulin. She tolerated it all well, but one day she got hypoglycemic & ended up in the kitty ICU after a seizure. She pulled through, but because of that, the Vet is very timid to give her the injected steroid again. Right now we have been giving her oral steroid, which don't work as well. We have to put a cone on her to keep her from scratching, but she HATES the cone. It's just not a good standard of life either.
The Vet says that we could do an allergy test on her, but they just aren't that accurate for cats, not to mention expensive. When we do take the cone off for a few minutes for her to do some grooming, it's not 2 minutes before she's rubbing her eyelids bloody again. From the goop coming out, she obviously has an infection, but we have tried almost every topical & oral antibiotic out there & it just won't go away, likely because she keeps scratching them with bacteria covered paws when she gets the chance.
At this point, we want to just beg the Vet to give her the shot. Yes, she could get diabetic again (it resolved itself eventually, so that she no longer has needed insulin for a year & a half) but she isn't really enjoying life that much either. She tolerated the daily sugar checks & injections much better than that cone.
Does anyone have ANY suggestions? Some of the other Vets in this animal hospital have taken pics of her eyes because they've never seen anything like it before...to this extent.
I had a stupid person suggest we declaw her (yeah, stop her itching by cutting off her fingers...no thanks) but she actually doesn't scratch much with her claws...it's more the side of her arm, so that wouldn't stop anything anyway.
I suppose an option is to remove the 3rd eyelids, but there is no guarantee that would stop the itching. The 3rd eyelids might not even be what is itching...just happen to get irritated when she scratches. Again, pricey thing to do when it may not even help.
We went to an Animal Skin doctor, & what he prescribed DID help, but only once we put the cone on her. When her eyes looked normal & we tried taking the cone off, she went right after her eyes again.
Ever since then, she has had itchy, inflamed, goopy conjunctiva & third eyelids. We've done the hypoallergenic foods, topical eye antibiotics/steroids, oral steroids...the only thing that truly takes her itching away is injected steroids. The problem was that she did get diabetes as a result. We took her sugar every day & got her insulin. She tolerated it all well, but one day she got hypoglycemic & ended up in the kitty ICU after a seizure. She pulled through, but because of that, the Vet is very timid to give her the injected steroid again. Right now we have been giving her oral steroid, which don't work as well. We have to put a cone on her to keep her from scratching, but she HATES the cone. It's just not a good standard of life either.
The Vet says that we could do an allergy test on her, but they just aren't that accurate for cats, not to mention expensive. When we do take the cone off for a few minutes for her to do some grooming, it's not 2 minutes before she's rubbing her eyelids bloody again. From the goop coming out, she obviously has an infection, but we have tried almost every topical & oral antibiotic out there & it just won't go away, likely because she keeps scratching them with bacteria covered paws when she gets the chance.
At this point, we want to just beg the Vet to give her the shot. Yes, she could get diabetic again (it resolved itself eventually, so that she no longer has needed insulin for a year & a half) but she isn't really enjoying life that much either. She tolerated the daily sugar checks & injections much better than that cone.
Does anyone have ANY suggestions? Some of the other Vets in this animal hospital have taken pics of her eyes because they've never seen anything like it before...to this extent.
I had a stupid person suggest we declaw her (yeah, stop her itching by cutting off her fingers...no thanks) but she actually doesn't scratch much with her claws...it's more the side of her arm, so that wouldn't stop anything anyway.
I suppose an option is to remove the 3rd eyelids, but there is no guarantee that would stop the itching. The 3rd eyelids might not even be what is itching...just happen to get irritated when she scratches. Again, pricey thing to do when it may not even help.
We went to an Animal Skin doctor, & what he prescribed DID help, but only once we put the cone on her. When her eyes looked normal & we tried taking the cone off, she went right after her eyes again.
