Cat has goopy eye?

Hi all!  Very new here and a fairly new cat owner.  I guess I should give background before I go into my question.

About a 3 weeks ago, my boyfriend and I came across a shivering kitten in an a construction site, leaky eyes and heart-breakingly thin and dirty.  He insisted we take him in.  No mother was around the few times we checked so I agreed, wrapped him in my coat, against my chest, and there he slept the way home.

He saw a vet about 2 days later.  Was ridden with fleas, worms and was aged at about 2 months, max, weighing about 1lb.  Now, at 1.5lbs, de-fleaed, dewormed (as is my dog who caught them) and playful as heck as well as bossy (he argues with me), he was doing well until last night, when we noticed his right eye was swollen and leaking green gunk.  Now he had yellow/white gunk in both eyes when we first got him and the vet said there was no infection and it wasn't uncommon for strays to have such a thing.  Even then, his eyes weren't swollen.  After googling, I get that I should take him to a vet but my question is really...can he wait till tomorrow or do I need to get him to an emergency clinic?  He doesn't seem to be in any pain, isn't rubbing or acknowledging the eye and is as playful as ever, if that makes any difference.

I'm sorry if this sounds like a lame or silly set of questions but it's really my first cat and I'm more used to dealing with dogs.

Thanks in advance!

We had a similar experience when we adopted a sick, feral kitten in 2006... It was a bright, sunny fourth of July, we were coming back from a parade, and this tiny white kitten was sitting in a driveway, looking up at the sky, with both eyes closed and leaking yellowish crud.  We kept him overnight, gently wiped his eyes with cold, wet Qtips, and took him to the vet.  That worked fine, he seemed to genuinely appreciate the cold Qtip wipes!!

In our case it was feline herpes, which is extremely common in feral cats.  As with all herpes variants, there is not actually any cure for the virus, but the symptoms can be treated (though it may not be very cheap initially).  Our little white babe grew into a gorgeous 10-pound Siamese terror of solid muscle, and his eyes are fine, though one doesn't open as wide as the other, giving him a wise, somber appearance that led to his name, Yoda...

You probably don't need to leap to emergency care, especially if he doesn't seem to be in pain, but cold wipes such as we used will likely make your kitten much more content!!

Start getting some L-lysine into him, and bath the eye in clean, blood-warm water.  If you have a handy pharmacy around, you can get some eyewash.  Tomorrow will be soon enough, if there is a vet you can see tomorrow (Sunday?).

derelict said:

We had a similar experience when we adopted a sick, feral kitten in 2006... It was a bright, sunny fourth of July, we were coming back from a parade, and this tiny white kitten was sitting in a driveway, looking up at the sky, with both eyes closed and leaking yellowish crud.  We kept him overnight, gently wiped his eyes with cold, wet Qtips, and took him to the vet.  That worked fine, he seemed to genuinely appreciate the cold Qtip wipes!!

In our case it was feline herpes, which is extremely common in feral cats.  As with all herpes variants, there is not actually any cure for the virus, but the symptoms can be treated (though it may not be very cheap initially).  Our little white babe grew into a gorgeous 10-pound Siamese terror of solid muscle, and his eyes are fine, though one doesn't open as wide as the other, giving him a wise, somber appearance that led to his name, Yoda...

You probably don't need to leap to emergency care, especially if he doesn't seem to be in pain, but cold wipes such as we used will likely make your kitten much more content!!

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Awww that is so sweet!  It's amazing to watch him grow so fast.  The vet is waiting on the blood tests so she can do everything together, namely FIV so would that be a blood test?

Funny enough, I've been flushing his eyes (don't want to risk the other eye getting gooped) with a cool, very diluted saline solution and held the wet compress there for as long as he let me a few times.  The swelling and goop have gone down considerably since I even posted the initial question.  His eye still won't open all the way but it's better than it was this morning so now I'm confused...

Well, don't be in too much of a hurry for the eye to start opening... Yoda took a couple of weeks before his eyes fully opened, that's not necessarily a problem....

May your babe thrive and have beautiful eyes to gaze at you adoringly with, while she plots to take over the house!  8-{)

My feral Lucky has had some eye issues in the past. Since this is most likely an infection, your vet can prescribe you some eye drops or ointment that will clear it up within the week. vibes for you and your kitty!

mrblanche said:

Start getting some L-lysine into him, and bath the eye in clean, blood-warm water.  If you have a handy pharmacy around, you can get some eyewash.  Tomorrow will be soon enough, if there is a vet you can see tomorrow (Sunday?).

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I did read about the L-lysine briefly.  Do I get that at a pet store?  Is the eyewash special?  I've been using a diluted saline wash and his eye has improved a lot since this morning both in swelling and leakage.  It's got a tiny bit of white goop and not as frequent now but still noticeably swollen.

Derelict, you are so right.  Please mind the mess in the background but this is my little feline prince who, for the first week, would sleep on my shoulder with his face buried in my neck and now he's too big.  They grow too fast.

kittylover23 said:

My feral Lucky has had some eye issues in the past. Since this is most likely an infection, your vet can prescribe you some eye drops or ointment that will clear it up within the week.

vibes for you and your kitty!

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Thank you!  I know it doesn't seem to bother him but it bothers me seeing his eye so goopy.  Glad it's getting better though. Or seems to be.  He's still going to the vet though because I don't like chancing it.

Oh, what a Lovely, Regal young one!!  I love those grey eyes... may he have a long and joyful reign!
 

And as quickly as it came, his eye looks perfectly normal and clear and void of any swelling today.  I guess maybe he had something like a hair in there and I flushed it out?  I assume I should still request a feline herpes test at his next appointment if it's not standard in the bloodwork panel?

Thank you, Derelict! 

Mention it to the vet when you are back which I imagine will be fairly soon as he is due his first shot pretty soon.  Great news it's gone down.  If it comes back I would go to the vet through.  Hopefully your vet is like mine, and would always make space for me during the normal surgery hours.

Personally I think water is fine for washing eyes with though I only ever wiped gunk away.  I have used cold black tea as well.

You get L-lysine on-line, and you want the powder rather than pills, tablets or capsules.

OrientalSlave said:

Mention it to the vet when you are back which I imagine will be fairly soon as he is due his first shot pretty soon.  Great news it's gone down.  If it comes back I would go to the vet through.  Hopefully your vet is like mine, and would always make space for me during the normal surgery hours.

Personally I think water is fine for washing eyes with though I only ever wiped gunk away.  I have used cold black tea as well.

You get L-lysine on-line, and you want the powder rather than pills, tablets or capsules.

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He is due back in 2 weeks.  He just went for his first shot-cocktail and second dose of dewormer so he's due back for a follow-up.  I hope she does that as well.  I've never had to ask so far.

Should I continue with the saline for today just to be sure?  What does the tea do?  Same thing?  Is it better for them or just a matter of preference?  Should I be flushing his eyes on the regular?  I wipe them with a damp cloth but not flush like I did yesterday.

I'm going to order that today.

Lol sorry for the rapidfire questioning I still feel like I'm in new territory.

I suspect you got rid of whatever it was when you flushed the eye yesterday.  For wiping cold black tea was something I used at a friends and it worked well, so does water, so does saline, it really doesn't matter.  What does matter is if both eyes need wiping, do the worst one second, and use a different ball of cotton wool for each eye.

And there is no way I'd regularly flush eyes unless the vet told me to do so, and I had a correct strength saline to hand.  Flushing in my view is for getting rid of foreign bodies (which it sounds like you did) and first aid with chemical spills.