Cat's third eyelid showing

misspowpow

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OMG...I am in a complete panic!!!! We have 3 cats. Polly is almost 16 years old, a very timid polydactyl, small framed but slightly chunky. Milo is approximately 10 yrs old, big orange and white chubby buddy who adores Polly. My husband and I got Polly and Milo both from the local Animal Protective League (obviously several years apart).  In October or November of 2011, we noticed a couple stray Calico cats in our neighborhood.  Small cats, not too young, but wee guessed 6-9 months old.  They were extremely scared at first at the sight of us, but we put out food and eventually one in particular slowly socialized with us.  The other one sort of disappeared and we did not see it again :(....

Fortunately we had a very mild Winter and even though we would shut the garage door leaving the kitty outside at night, it managed to come by nightly for dinner.  Soon, we were petting and picking up the kitty, if only for a second. I told my husband that I had heard somewhere that Calicos were almost always females and he shrugged it off.  Between Polly and Milo, neither one seemed to have a problem with the scent of the other kitty on my husband, me, or even our 2 girls. Then one night, Milo seemed to freak. He hissed and growled and hid in the bedroom from everyone the rest of the night.  I told my husband, the cat has to be a female and might be coming into heat. The very next night, there was a HUGE tomcat outside "messing" with our new kitty friend, but she put up a good attitude!  My husband and I decided then that we would check our options.  Even if we were not able to socialize the kitty into our household, we had to do the right thing and get her fixed.  I checked with the APL and the have a feril cat program where if you can trap or manage to catch and bring in a stray cat, they will spay/neuter the cat, vaccinate, give a 3 month flea treatment, 3 yr rabies, microchip, and eartip (the eartip marks a feril cat as a "fixed" cat since they are generally released back to their feril colony, that way if they are ever trapped or brought in again, it is immediately recognized that they have already been fixed). This service is performed by the APL for $25. So, that was our goal, get miss kitty fixed, make an attempt to socialize her into our household, and if it did not work, she at least would not be making little kittens. We accomplished our goal in January. Missy, as our daughters named her, was spayed (and yes Calicos are almost always female....and yes, Missy was in heat when we took her in) on January 16, 2012. Once I picked her up from the APL our goal was to let her recover and then socialize her into our lives. It has been a process, let me tell you!! Puffy tails, flat ears, and hissing aside, everything has gone well...at least as expected.  But about a month or so ago, we noticed that Polly was confining herself to one room in the house it seemed.  Then we realized she was using that room as her litterbox as well.  So, we have amended our behaviors....we keep Missy at bay while Polly eats and drinks, etc.  We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned....we bought anti marking, destressing sprays, special cat odor neutralizing sprays and cleaners, and even a collar that was supposed to help destress Polly and mimic the pheromone that calms them as a kitten. We clean out the litterbox every single morning, we take her to the litterbox at least 4-5 times a day...more on the weekends....and she does her business when we do!  So, needless to say I thought we were on the upswing......but now she confines herself to the master bedroom. And we discovered that she was doing the same thing in there. Then....on Saturday when I took her on a trip to the litterbox, I noticed she had diarrhea. As of Tuesday night, I had cleaned up 3 "accidents" in the bedroom...all diarrhea. That was when I noticed the third eyelid.  It haunted me all night long. I have been all over the internet trying to figure out if this is all a result of us bringing in this new cat or is there an underlying health issue, she is old after all.  I almost find myself resenting the new kitty, Missy, even though I know it isn't her fault.  But really....is it our fault? Have we doomed our precious timid Polly with this new, young kitty? How could we have done things different??

I took the day off of work tomorrow and I am taking her to the vet first thing after I take the girls to school.....someone out there please keep your fingers crossed that our shy precious baby will be okay!!! The internet is a wonderful thing, and it is a horrible thing.....I have a list of things that COULD be wrong with her.  Maybe it's just me trying to push the blame away from us.
 

simka

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I'm sorry to hear that Polly is having a very difficult time adjusting to a young cat in her home. Did you  take Polly to the vet to check for a urinary tract infection when she started urinating in places other than the box?  I read through your post carefully but didn't see that.
 
 

barbb

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Is Polly's third eyelid showing in both eyes or just one? 
 

When I have had a cat showing the third eyelid, it is a situation where they are sick with URI. I just read on the internet that this also sometimes happen when the cat has gastroenteritis or parasites. 

I know exactly what you are going through as I have been in your situation with my cats getting URI or picking up bad behavior from my rescues and me worrying about that as well as what other ways I have stressed them out with my good intentions. For now just focus on the lives you have saved. And you are doing exactly the right thing taking Polly to the vet. 

And you are right too, that it is not Missy's fault. She deserves her time to be a young teenager and to romp around and raise hell and to have her special baby time just as Milo and Polly did at her age. 

I think you and your husband are the kind of caring people that will make sure all your kitties are cared for and I'm sure Polly will be comfy in the bedroom so long as you give her a littebox of her own and a lot of love and attention.

If Missy still has some kind of worms or other issue, that could be why Polly is avoiding the litterbox. Cats have an uncanny sense about that stuff. It sounds like everyone may need to be wormed again and I would be sure to include treatment for tapeworms too. This is just a guess on my part from reading on the internet, so check with your vet about this. It sounds like you may have already gone there so do let us know the outcome too! 
 
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