FIV Issues?

Hello, New to the site. Ace is my 6-7 year old Rescue FIV positive Maine Coon. I've had him for 2 years now with minimal problems. Occasionaly he'll itch his left ear while he gets what the Vet calls "gunk" in there and we use a prescription rinse to clean the ear. About a month ago, I noticed a green discharge coming out of the Left eye. Nothing else, no coughing, no sneezing, no redness. Ace and I headed to the Vet, where she wasnt sure what it was but thought Infection so sent us on our wat with Erythromycin Eye ointment for 10 days. 3 weeks later, no change..nothing worse, but nothing better. Called and spoke to Vet last week and she was puzzled due to in her opinion, she would assume it would have spread to the other eye by now but Prescribed the Kitty version of Augmentin oral pills. today is day 3 on the pills and I;m still wiping Aces eye about 6 times a day. Does anyone have any clue what this might be? I've researched and researched and all Ive come up with is Green discharge is a sign of infection and to talk to your vet..but it seems the vat doesnt know either.

Welcome to TCS. I'm sorry it's a health issue that brings you here...

I'm not sure this has anything to do with his being FIV+ or not. But I'm not sure why your vet is stumped: green discharge is usually a sign of a bacterial infection. usually pretty straightforward. We have a feral in the colony that is prone to infections that cause green discharge from his eyes (and it's not the FIV+ kitty). We take him to the vet, and because he's feral, they give him a shot of Convenia (which I don't recommend for our pet cats) and it clears up within a few days. Since none of our indoor-only cats get infections that result in eye goop (knock wood), I don't know what antibiotic would normally be prescribed.

But as he's on antibiotics he's taking internally, I definitely recommend a probiotic to restore his good gut bacteria. I give my cats a probiotic daily. I use this one on the recommendation of my vet: When using probiotics with antibiotics, they need to be given at least 2 hours before or after the antibiotic. And if the antibiotic is once a day, it's even better to give one in the AM and one in the PM. The probiotic can just be sprinkled on their food (if you feed wet food).

What are you feeding him? Because the gunk in the ear often clears up when fed a low-carb, grain-free diet. We had a cat with yeasty ears. She's our herpes kitty - lost one eye and hearing to it (she was a mess when rescued. ). The vet cultured it, we treated it and it went away - but she always had gunky ear wax build-up after that, even though subsequent cultures came up negative for any yeast. This ear waxy stuff went away when we switched all of our cats (including our FIV+ kitty) to a raw diet.

Are there other vet options in your area? You might want to consider trying another vet. Especially with an FIV kitty, I'd recommend a D.V.M. additionally trained in Chinese Meds. Then you have both traditional and alternate care treatment options. If you're in the U.S., you can search to see if there's one you can get to (and check yelp or other reviews, if there are any) here: http://www.ahvma.org

Vibes for your boy!

Thank you so much! where can I find a probonic supp? I forgot to add that Ace is an indoor cat and only eats canned food with chicken by product being the main ingredient. I may look around for a second opinion but dont know any local vets that specify with feline only.

Nevermind about where to buy the supp...I misread. thanks again