Bad eye?

I have an orange long haired-tabby stray who showed up at my house about a year ago. About 2 days ago I noticed her eye looked a little irritated, nothing major. Yesterday by the time she showed up at my house (she usually shows up and stays inside my house from 9 at night until around 5 in the morning and leaves while we're sleeping) it looked a little more pink, but nothing too serious. I read online that cats eyes can get scratched during cat fights which is common and usually goes away within a day or two. She just showed up tonight and her eye looks HORRIBLE. It is VERY swollen, her third eyelid is now covering about 50% of it, it is pretty leaky with some brownish discharge. I'm calling ASAP in the morning to set her up an appointment, was just wondering if anyone had an idea of what it could be?

If it was scratched, there could be an infection in it. I had a cat who's eye was scratched while playing, and the vet actually had to surgically remove the flap of skin from his eyeball. Going to the vet is a wise move.

Yep, I would take her to the vet. My feral, Lucky, got his eye scratched by another cat (or vet said he might have accidentally scratched it himself) and his eye was in bad shape. It sounds like the exact situation with your stray. Watery, red, swollen, with some greenish discharge.
When I took him to the vet, they stained his eye with some drops (it turned his eye this bright green color, it was so neat) and said his eye was scratched and infected. They gave him a shot of antibiotics, and sent him home with eye drops, and a lubricant to heal the scratch.
It healed up within a few days. Definitely take this kitty to the vet. Vibes for both you and kitty .

Well update. This kitty is a stray, and usually comes into our house from 9 at night till around 4-5 in the morning and then disappears. Well the night before we planned to take her to the vet we attempted to keep her in a large crate, which she FREAKED OUT constantly for about 2 hours straight until my boyfriend decided to let her out, and that we would close the cat door and he would sleep in the living room with her next to the door so he could wake up and let the other cats in/out throughout the night. Well, apparently while he was sleeping she pried the cat door up and escaped. We searched for her for DAYS, to no avail. I was really beginning to think we would never see her again. She had disappeared for a few days before- but never this long plus I was SO worried about her eye. Then I get a call from my boyfriend tonight that she showed back up randomly, and was sitting on our couch. Her eye is HORRIBLE, and the other one looks like it's on its way there too. The one that is worse has a LARGE black scab looking thing on it, made up of goop and dirt and other gross things i'm sure. You can't see her eyeball AT ALL. We tried taking a warm wash cloth to it but she seemed so uncomfortable we decided to leave her be. She looks ragged, her fur is a complete mess and covered in dirt, normally she looks well groomed and like she takes good care of herself. I've tried to get her to eat, yummy wet food, but she refuses. We have an appointment at a vet at 8 tomorrow morning in a town 30 minutes away tomorrow because no vets in my town are open on Sundays.

I'm so glad she's found you!  I really hope the vet has better news than you expect.  Please keep us posted.
 

Well we've gotten her to drink a little water and also nibble a tiny bit on food- so that's good. She is moving so slow and you can definitely tell she is not feeling well at all. 8 o clock seriously cannot come fast enough! I feel so bad for her

Well, another update. Just got back from the emergency vet in a town 30 minutes away. What made us decide to go ASAP was when I looked over where she had been sleeping on our couch and she was sitting up, so I went over to pet her and all of her muscles were contracted and her head was in a weird position, her back leg kept lifting involuntarily- then this fit subsided after about 2 minutes. We drove her there ASAP, I explained this 'fit' to the vet and she said it didn't sound like a seizure but that she couldn't know without seeing. So the vet gets the large scab off of the eye and says she believes it's just infected from a cat fight, and that there could be a foxtail in there but she can't see any sign of it so if it is one it's already worked it's way back behind her eye [but the vet seemed like this was unlikely and very rare cases]. So she got an antibiotic shot that is supposed to last over an extended period of time because she is a stray instead of giving her something oral daily. She also got a pain medication shot that is supposed to last 3 days, and we also treated her with Revolution. While we were at the vet, she had a 'fit' again and we called the vets in from the other room to see. They were perplexed because while it's happening she's still responsive to us and movement in front of her eyes, and she purrs the entire time but it's like she loses control of her muscles and they just very slowly tense and move in awkward positions until it's over. VERY SLOWLY though, there's no shaking or anything like that just tensing. I'm really hoping this medicine is going to kick in soon and that she'll be okay.

The vet estimated her to be around 8 years old AT LEAST!!!!!!

We drove her home and she ate some canned tuna, and is now just sleeping on our couch. I'm horrified she'll have another fit again. It's the scariest thing i've seen in my life and I can't help but cry hysterically when she does it even though I want to be there to support her since she is obviously responsive and aware of her surroundings when it's happening.

Woke up this morning and checked on her before I went to work. She's pretty lethargic acting, just slow and doesn't move much but to barely sit up while she's eating/drinking with her head hanging down. She won't eat any solid food, I have to water the wet food down to the point of almost a soup just to get her to ingest any. She's been drinking water frequently though, and the eye that was all scabbed over is now draining constantly with bloody yellowness. I haven't seen any more fits though, which is a relief for me and I hope continues.

Did the vet not give you any kind of drops for the eye or instructions on what to expect and do if there's drainage?
 

The antibiotic shot is a shot that lasts over a period of time because she is a stray and can get out [although she's staying around the house and under our eye] so the vet thought the shot would be better than a daily eye drop or oral medicine. She just told us to warm compress the eye and to keep it from crusting up, and to make sure she's drinking and eating.

She must've gotten the Convenia shot.
 

Yes! I'm looking at the bill now and she got Convenia, and the pain med is listed as Buprenorp

She is doing AMAZINGLY. I am soooo happy. Honestly, my boyfriend and I weren't too sure she was going to make it she was in SUCH bad shape. But the Convenia has obviously done it's job, her eye is almost completely back to normal now and she is one happy camper, being spoiled to health with yummy wet food and tuna. She has a litterbox she uses and hasn't even tried to go outside in the last 5 days... which is amazing considering before this she would never stay longer than 8 hours. I think we may have turned a stray into a house cat

Woohooo on both her feeling better and perhaps turning her into an indoor kitty.  Maybe she realizes that being indoors is the pampered life she's always wanted.
 

She's been 100% for a few days now. Doing wonderfully, and is staying in our house more than ever.

That's awesome!!  Sounds like she is on the road to recovery!!  Yay!
 

clynn11 said:

She's been 100% for a few days now. Doing wonderfully, and is staying in our house more than ever.

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It sounds to me like you have been adopted.  Kudos for caring that much about a "stray"  She was just looking for the right place.