Puffy eye

crackers · Oct 26, 2012

My cat, Simone, has a puffy eye. It's not a new condition. We always used to think that it was caused through a fight with her sister, Sarah. But her sister died in August and the puffy eye has returned. This time we treated the eye with an eye wash solution for animals, cleaning out the tear duct. The swelling didn't go down so I tried Spersallerg eye drops as an eye wash as this had previously also been effective. Again only cleaning out the eye duct. The eye improved but was still light sensitive so I took her to the vet. He checked her eye for tears. There were none. He said she may have had an abscess which had since cleared up. He gave me Maxitrol eye drops and told me to put a drop in each eye four times a day. If there was no improvement, within 10 days, or deterioration, I was to contact him to refer her to an eye specialist.

Here is my quandary. June 2011 I adopted a cat (Max) who had been abandoned. He died in February 2012. We think this was as a result of people putting down rat poison. he was an excellent rat catcher and therefore it was highly likely that he caught a rat who had been poisoned in the neighbourhood. Then in August 2012 I had to put down Sarah because she had cancer. Simone is my last cat. She is 13 years old. She has inflammatory bowel disease. I couldn't bear to lose another cat. Neither could my partner who herself has cancer.

Simone was treated on Wednesday. My partner has phoned to say her eye is puffy and she can't look at the light. Do I continue the treatment, reduce the treatment or stop it completely?

blueyedgirl5946 · Oct 26, 2012

Crackers said:
My cat, Simone, has a puffy eye. It's not a new condition. We always used to think that it was caused through a fight with her sister, Sarah. But her sister died in August and the puffy eye has returned. This time we treated the eye with an eye wash solution for animals, cleaning out the tear duct. The swelling didn't go down so I tried Spersallerg eye drops as an eye wash as this had previously also been effective. Again only cleaning out the eye duct. The eye improved but was still light sensitive so I took her to the vet. He checked her eye for tears. There were none. He said she may have had an abscess which had since cleared up. He gave me Maxitrol eye drops and told me to put a drop in each eye four times a day. If there was no improvement, within 10 days, or deterioration, I was to contact him to refer her to an eye specialist.

Here is my quandary. June 2011 I adopted a cat (Max) who had been abandoned. He died in February 2012. We think this was as a result of people putting down rat poison. he was an excellent rat catcher and therefore it was highly likely that he caught a rat who had been poisoned in the neighbourhood. Then in August 2012 I had to put down Sarah because she had cancer. Simone is my last cat. She is 13 years old. She has inflammatory bowel disease. I couldn't bear to lose another cat. Neither could my partner who herself has cancer.

Simone was treated on Wednesday. My partner has phoned to say her eye is puffy and she can't look at the light. Do I continue the treatment, reduce the treatment or stop it completely?

If your cat was seen by the vet on Wednesday and the instructions were to use the drops four times a day for ten days, why would you stop it now. I think your choices are either call the vet back at anytime within the ten days of treatment if the eye is worse or continue for the full ten days for improvement.

angels mommy · Oct 27, 2012

I agree. It may just take a little longer for her to respond to the medicated drops. Just like we have to finish antibiotics, she should get a full 10 days prescribed. It may just be slowly working. Give it a chance to work, then see what it looks like 2-3 days before the 10 days are up, If it doesn't look better by then, I would call & let the vet know, & go from there. Unless it looks worse earlier of course.

As for her having IBD, have you tried, do you feed raw? There are a lot of threads on here about it & it's helped a lot of kitties.

There are a couple of members that have kitties w/ IBD, & they are doing very, very well because of feeding raw. If you want to check out any of the threads on raw, the two members who I speak of & have a lot of knowledge on feeding raw are LDG & Carolina.

Laurie (LDG) helped me w/ this info when I started feeding raw. There are a lot of really great, helpful people on this site!

Good luck & keep us posted on how your little girl is doing.

smitten4kittens · Oct 27, 2012

I'm sorry you're going through this. I would continue the current treatment. Because this seems to come and go, do you think it"s possible the swelling could be an allergic reaction?

crackers · Oct 28, 2012

Thanks for the suggestions. I have persisted with the drops but reduced it to 3x a day. Her eye is improved. Her voice is a little croaky so I'm guessing that the tear duct is clearing because it's draining down her throat.

Today she was more perky and less wary of me. We believe our cat is fully conversant in the language of humans

so much talking is done.

I've never tried raw foods because 'vets know best' and have insisted on dry biscuits for dental health. From what I'm hearing now and based on my recently acquired experience on feeding her wet, I will try alternate wet foods. My new concern is that she is drinking less water than she was. What literature I could find did say that Maxitrol will change their taste. But not drinking water? Her kidneys are functioning. Could this also be because she is eating the wet food and very little of the dry biscuits?

With regard to the possibility that the puffy eye is an allergic reaction: Simone is an indoor cat. We live in South Africa so it is quite possible that there is an insect or pollen that is triggering the reaction. I've never monitored to see whether this is a seasonal thing, other than it comes and goes.

orientalslave · Oct 29, 2012

Cats that only eat wet food drink very little. If you've changed her from all dry to part dry, part wet, it's normal for her to drink less.

In my view the best thing for dental health is raw chicken wings - if the cat will eat them!

crackers · Nov 6, 2012

Hi y'all. An update. I stopped the drops after 10 days, deciding she had had enough of being trapped and eyes dropped. I don't know how many of you have cats who pull at your heartstrings like this one. Once I have dropped her eyes, she buries her head in my armpit and won't come out until she thinks it's safe. Both our cats were from a breeder. When they arrived they were both ill and were in and out of hospital for the first 6 months of their lives. I was so concerned about their health I fed them on a diet of chicken soup. Simone has been on meds for all of her life because of IBD. When we had to medicate her as a kitten, she would cling to your arm like a baby and bury her head in my armpit. iIn fact Simone never 'spoke' for the first 6 months of her life. She would open her mouth but nothing came out. I started to monitor her and noticed she liked certain 'foods' - peanuts (which she would throw up), potatoes and avocado. On went my thinking cap and I ground Calcium and a Zinc + A + B6 compound. I mixed this into their dry biscuits.

My partner got such a fright the first time Simone used her lungs and yelled

Back to the present. her eyes look great, no puffiness visible. So to all of you who told me to persist... Thank you. Now I'm using an eye wash to keep her eyes clear because there is slight weeping but no pufiness.

orientalslave · Nov 6, 2012

Eye washes can do more harm than good. Except where medically advised I would not use one on a regular basis as they wash the tears out of the eye, and tears are both lubricating and antibacterial. There are quite a few reasons why she might have a weepy eye and eye washes won't do anything for several of them.

crackers · Nov 6, 2012

thank you, oh wise one. I'm not sure if you are misunderstanding the level of what I'm doing. Just as we humans wipe the'gunk' at the base of our tear duct, I've been wiping this clean but using an eye wash solution on a small piece of cotton wool. As to how often, I am doing this once a day and only if I feel it is necessary. The puffiness has gone, her eyes are bright and clear.

On your advice I will desist from this because I do not want to undo any good.

orientalslave · Nov 6, 2012

How was I to know what you were doing with the eye wash?

crackers · Nov 6, 2012

OrientalSlave said:
How was I to know what you were doing with the eye wash?

You weren't. I realised that which is why I explained what I was doing.

I can't even begin to tell you how depressed I am. Everytime I look at a Photo of my cats, my heart just breaks. Going to the vet makes me even more depressed, even why I just buy food. I wonder just how many cat owners feel that vets are for dogs and have little empathy for cats.

pushylady · Nov 7, 2012

I sometimes get that impression about vets too - they take dogs much more seriously. At least here in North America there are tons of vets and it's much easier to find one you do like. Not sure what it's like in South Africa.

I'm glad Simone's eye is getting better. Sounds like she will always have the gunkiness though. Both my cats have quite a bit of eye gunk which I usually wipe away every day, but otherwise they're fine.

angels mommy · Nov 7, 2012

Crackers said:
You weren't. I realised that which is why I explained what I was doing.

I can't even begin to tell you how depressed I am. Everytime I look at a Photo of my cats, my heart just breaks. Going to the vet makes me even more depressed, even why I just buy food. I wonder just how many cat owners feel that vets are for dogs and have little empathy for cats.

I am very blessed to have a practice in my town that is only for cats. It's 12 miles away, which for in town driving, is pretty far. It's at the op posit end of town from where I live, but I take Angel there for that reason anyway. It's nice to not worry about if there is a seperate cat waiting room as well. The Dr.s are great too!

Maybe you can call around to some other vets & ask if there is anyone who specialized more in cats.

You never know. It can't hurt.

crackers · Nov 7, 2012

Angels mommy said:
I am very blessed to have a practice in my town that is only for cats. It's 12 miles away, which for in town driving, is pretty far. It's at the op posit end of town from where I live, but I take Angel there for that reason anyway. It's nice to not worry about if there is a seperate cat waiting room as well. The Dr.s are great too!

Maybe you can call around to some other vets & ask if there is anyone who specialized more in cats.

You never know. It can't hurt.

Your recommendation is a great one. When I first wanted to take Simone in for her eye I left because the waiting room was packed with dogs, and one Alsatian that looked at every little dog as a taste bite. It was a hot day and I asked the receptionist to call me when there was a space. I sat in the car with Simone until I decided I was putting too much stress on her and went back home. Four days later I had to go back, but again the room was busy with dogs and the wait was long.

A separate waiting room for cats is a wonderful idea. I will take your suggestion up and start phoning around.

angels mommy · Nov 8, 2012

Good, I'm glad. I hope you find a better place. I've been in a couple of vet's offices that have seperate waiting rooms for cats. I think it's a good idea too. (Or, duh, common sense!)

You would think being a vet, they would think about that. It's not like it would take a lot of extra space.

crackers · Dec 11, 2012

Hi guys - it's been chaotic on the home front and busy at work so I've not had time to give an update on Simone. Her puffy eye has gone.

She's doing great. I haven't had thecourage to try the raw food diet but I am feeding her a whole lot more wet food. She's loving it. Her coat is good. Her skin has improved substantially. She sleeps on my pillow above my head... a lot

I do feed her (off the table) treats such as rare fillet and cooked chicken. She looks forward to those treats. Her command of the English language is such that "Fillet" cannot be used in conversation. So we have resorted to talking about "the F word" for dinner (some kind of nod to Gordon Ramsay, or our compulsive viewing habits - who doesn't like food?). And although I haven't moved vets, I am treating them with great circumspection.

Puffy eye

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