Took in a couple barn kittens with eye infections

My friend has a goat farm and the cat population is quite high. Some of the kittens all tend to get severe eye infections and then most recover. Last fall I brought in about 10 that were really bad for a few days of TLC to get them on the road to recovery. I was visiting last night and socializing some of them and couldn't help but bring these two home. The tabby is very young, tiny and in need of some groceries.

They are doing good and I'm treating their eyes.

I understand you know what to do.  Normally I would strongly recommend a visit to the vet, You shall not experiment with severe eye infections if you dont really know what you are doing and you are experienced with this..

Please, tell, what is your methode?  

Interesting your friend has this goat farm.  So you do have access to goat milk if you need it, for example as substitute milk both for kittens and sensitive humans?

Good luck!

AWWWW look at those poor babies. Thank you SOOOOO much for taking them in. You are saving their life and their eyesight. I agree with Stefan about the vet. I also am just curious about what you use to treat the eyes? I have some suggestions as well but want to see what you are doing first. It is obviously a Herpetic Viral infection. Herpes in the eyes. It really could go from bad to worse rather quickly - keep close watch on them. Bless you :heart3: for saving them.

OH.... p.s. I think this thread would be better suited in the Kitten Forum. Lots of people will have great advice and suggestions there. :cross:

Feralvr said:

OH.... p.s. I think this thread would be better suited in the Kitten Forum. Lots of people will have great advice and suggestions there.

Click to expand...

Not necessarily better there.

It is here in the Ferale forum our mods do accept we discuss and even sometimes suggest home remedies.  As rescueers do often have new and many cats to take care about, and most are not made of money. At most other forums the policy is to recommend a vet.  

(I suppose partly so not risk to be suited for giving bad advices or "malpractice". In USA you can be suited for practicaly everthing.  Although this renown example with hot coffe in McDonalds is partly a myth - that coffe WAS superhot, boiling)

Yes, the cats at this barn get goat milk twice a day and they give a bit of kibble which is alot more than most

barns do. The young kittens often suffer with problematic eyes but most recover as they get older and stronger.

As for treatment, I bring them home and fatten them up. The smallest are at the mercy of the larger ones and

the females often take turns feeding whoever so often there are 4 week olds and 8 weeks old feeding together.

Treatment isn't alot, getting them away from the dirt and debris, warm compresses on the eye and administering

vet prescribed eye ointment twice a day.

I actually have a home for the little orange one. If his eye does not improve noticeabley in the next 24 - 48hrs I

will phone my vet.

Taking these kittens to the vet isn't really plausible. There are 12 more at the barn that could use the same tlc.

I am their only hope.

That said, once they are here...I would never take one back that was suffering. I would take it to my vet. She is a

wonderful lady who has helped me out tremendously with my continuous parade of needy cats/kittens. Often

not charging or only charging half price.
 

StefanZ said:

Not necessarily better there.
It is here in the Ferale forum our mods do accept we discuss and even sometimes suggest home remedies.  As rescueers do often have new and many cats to take care about, and most are not made of money. At most other forums the policy is to recommend a vet.  

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Ok, thanks for the info. I guess the thread got moved though. Absolutely true about the costs to rescuers and needing home remedies at times. :nod:

Levi68 said:

Yes, the cats at this barn get goat milk twice a day and they give a bit of kibble which is alot more than most
barns do. The young kittens often suffer with problematic eyes but most recover as they get older and stronger.
As for treatment, I bring them home and fatten them up. The smallest are at the mercy of the larger ones and
the females often take turns feeding whoever so often there are 4 week olds and 8 weeks old feeding together.
Treatment isn't alot, getting them away from the dirt and debris, warm compresses on the eye and administering
vet prescribed eye ointment twice a day.
I actually have a home for the little orange one. If his eye does not improve noticeabley in the next 24 - 48hrs I
will phone my vet.
Taking these kittens to the vet isn't really plausible. There are 12 more at the barn that could use the same tlc.
I am their only hope.
That said, once they are here...I would never take one back that was suffering. I would take it to my vet. She is a
wonderful lady who has helped me out tremendously with my continuous parade of needy cats/kittens. Often
not charging or only charging half price.

Click to expand...

Well, so glad to hear that you have such a generous and caring vet. We sure need more like that in this world. :nod: Hoping that the eye compresses and the antibiotic eye ointment helps them to recover. Wonderful news on the little orange baby Keep us posted!

Well, they are eating and playing. The orange kittens eye is still really bad. I took photos and I do see a slight improvement. The swelling has def gone down a bit. I treated them both with Revolution tonight because i know they have ear mites and no doubt worms. The ear mites do not help with his bad eye. I am finding that if they have one eye that's worse than the other, the same ear is really bad for mites. They just seem to clog everything up. Here's some close ups of his eye. One from last the first night and one tonight which is 48 hrs.  You can see the lower eye lid is more swollen and you can see some flesh coming up. Second pic, the swelling is diminished. Still a long way to go though. Poor wee man.

Took him to the vet today after finding his eye oozing with the white purulent drainage this morning.

The vet wants him on the same eye drops I was using but gave me a steriod drop to try and get the swelling

down. You can barely see his eye even when prying his eye open there so much swelling.

Hopefully he'll start to improve.

I am so sorry to hear that he took a turn for the worse but am so glad you were able to get him to the vet. OHHH poor baby. He is lucky to have you caring for him. The steroidal drop will for sure help with the swelling. Should see some improvement within 24 hours :cross:. I am glad you have such a wonderful vet to count on. Please keep us posted on him.

Sending more vibes tonight for the little guy... hope he is doing better :cross:

Thank you! Yes...he's doing so much better today. The swelling has gone down so much! His eye is open now. There's alot of damage to the eye

itself but in my experience, should clear up.  Although, it does take weeks and perhaps months to fully repair itself. He looks like he's got a white eye.

I'll post pics from this morning soon.
 

Poor baby, I had kittens with terrible eye infections not that long ago. Steroid drops really helped the one with his eyes swollen shut.
 

AWWWW the little sweetie... :heart3: :rub: He does look better - but yes, that one eye still is not good. Mega vibes that it heals and recovers completely :cross: You are doing a fantastic job, bless your heart

I have some kittens showed up this week.  one has eyes looking worse then  yours. im using eye drops, terrramycin an today got amoxicillian from my vet. got apt in 2 weeks for her to look at them.  It gets a bubble on it ( looks like eye buldging) pops an  green stuff comes out,   vet  said the bubble was the cornia an from picture i showed her she may need her eye removed!  ihave lot of cats an this is the sweetest cat. about 3mths old an looks about 5 weeks so teenie!  very playful an eats good.  just the nasty eye.        So from your post it will get better?  Feel so bad for her.

Scooter, I wish you and your protegé good luck!

Keep us updated please.. You can start a new tread too, if you wish.

Welcome to our Forums!

Good lck!

The kitten has gained weight an size. he weighs 3.3 pounds. No more white stuff  coming out of his eye but  the eye is sunken in a bit an the 3rd eyelid covers half the eye. the good eye has scar tissue over it.  The vet thinks he may be blind in both eyes (shined light on table with an without light on an he stepped off the edge of the table) she couldnt see in the eye . we put him on the floor an he walked into the wall then walked around an when he got there he would turn before getting to it like he was judging how far away it is.  hedont do that here  but he does turn his head at times like hes trying to  get the right angle to see it.  But i think he can see just not that well. He runs around an plays, everything a normal cat does except the eye looks bad. He plays with the big kitties an they send him under the furniture to get the toys since he is smaller.lol.     He climbs up the chair an backs down it. Just this week he has started jumping off my chair an the couch. He does it slowly but i think he is getting some depth perception back.    He has been climbing everything instead of jumping til now.   He  Is getting some trioptic eye cream twice a day.   He has no ear mites. It took 3 weeks to get the vet appt. She said me asking her for the antibiotics probably saved his sight (normally they wont give me anything without a visit an it takes 2-4 weeks to get an appt but i posted a pic on facebook an she saw it).

I have never seen eyes look this bad.  I have several that got the herpes virus (their mom had feline leukemia) an it was nothing compared to this. The good eye has a bluish grey haze over it an looks like it can be scraped off but she said no it is scar tissue an a cornea transplant would be about all they could do. She did say his vision should improve some. an keeping in the house helps because the sun makes his eyes dilate an harder for him to see. We brought him in when we found him because he followed us to the car an we are on a major highway and knew he would get hit.  THe vet also thought his sister is blind in  1 eye because it is discolored but her other eye is perfect which she thought was weird because its  usually in both eyes.

 As for the 3rd black kitten whose eye was matted shut an swollen, he never came back after eating so im assuming him mom took him to another house.   I have only seen her 1 time since she left the babies here.    I guess she felt we would take better care of them then  the house she had them at, AND SHE WAS RIGHT.  Just a little tlc an these babies would have kept there site. They took the time to play with the kittens but not wipe there eyes out.  

I will start a new thread an post pictures if i can figure out how to do it. Thank so much.   Scooters mommy

About 4 weeks ago we had 3 kittens show up starving to death. One of the kittens we took in after 3 days an he was very teenie an one of his eyes was bulging an white stuff coming out. We started terramycin an tried to get a vet apt asap but was almost 4 weeks before we could get one.  I was scared to bring him in because i didnt want my inside kitties to catch anything. They all just got over having possibly ringworm an the meds was over $300 an i didnt need to make them sick. 

I had my appt with the vet on tuesday an The kitten has gained weight an size. he weighs 3.3 pounds. No more white stuff  coming out of his eye but  the eye is sunken in a bit an the 3rd eyelid covers half the eye. the good eye has scar tissue over it.  The vet thinks he may be blind in both eyes (shined light on table with an without light on an he stepped off the edge of the table) she couldnt see in the eye . we put him on the floor an he walked into the wall then walked around an when he got there he would turn before getting to it like he was judging how far away it is.  He dont do that here  but he does turn his head at times like hes trying to  get the right angle to see it.  But i think he can see just not that well. He runs around an plays, everything a normal cat does except the eye looks bad. He plays with the big kitties an they send him under the furniture to get the toys since he is smaller.lol.     He climbs up the chair an backs down it. Just this week he has started jumping off my chair an the couch. He does it slowly but i think he is getting some depth perception back.    He has been climbing everything instead of jumping til now.  

He will look up at the light an bat at some imaginary objects. Im assuming he sees like floaters in his eye.  He  Is getting some trioptic eye cream twice a day.   He has no ear mites. It took  over 3 weeks to get the vet appt. She said me asking her for the antibiotics probably saved his sight (normally they wont give me anything without a visit an it takes 2-4 weeks to get an appt but i posted a pic on facebook an she saw it).

I have never seen eyes look this bad.  I have several that got the herpes virus (their mom had feline leukemia) an it was nothing compared to this. The good eye has a bluish grey haze over it an looks like it can be scraped off but she said no it is scar tissue an a cornea transplant would be about all they could do. She did say his vision should improve some and keeping him in the house helps because the sun makes his eyes dilate an harder for him to see. We brought him in when we found him because he followed us to the car an we are on a major highway and knew he would get hit.  The vet also thought his sister is blind in  1 eye because it is discolored but her other eye is perfect which she thought was weird because its  usually in both eyes.

 As for the 3rd black kitten whose eye was matted shut an swollen, he never came back after eating so im assuming him mom took him to another house.   I have only seen her 1 time since she left the babies here.    I guess she felt we would take better care of them then  the house she had them at, AND SHE WAS RIGHT.  Just a little tlc an these babies would have kept there site. They took the time to play with the kittens but not wipe there eyes out.  We have had some very cold nights an I worry the kitten may have frozen  but im hoping his mom took him somewhere warm. After all they are  about 4 months old even though they look to be 2 months so she did good taking care of them the best she could.

It does scare me a bit because i feed alot of ferals an semi ferals an alot i have tamed and 4 weeks ago Scooter Jr did not come home after visiting outside an he is in every night.  I just figure someone took him in cause it got so cold. The cats go to a field behind my house an i think there are 2 others that feed them also. I also have 2 grey girls who have not showed up in almost 4 weeks. one is the kittens mommy an the other i got her fixed. Both are super friendly also an would go into someone house if invited.  Neither cat is mine but come here to eat and dont have a home they are so skinny.  But i feed them an provide shelter if they want it.

I just hope these kittens eye sight continues to improve.  I want to do everything i can for them  to make sure they can see.   Thanks, Scooter's mommy

StefanZ said:

Scooter, I wish you and your protegé good luck!

Keep us updated please.. You can start a new tread too, if you wish.

Welcome to our Forums!

Good lck!

Click to expand...

Thanks StefanZ,  I tried a new thread with a picture but it kept saying thread not available. So i tried posting it on here an it said since i was new its waiting on the moderator.  So im not sure if i did it right but i added more info to what i had posted above when i started the new thread. Thanks again.