New here-cat with corneal ulcers and uveitis

I couldn't find any recent threads on this subject and I know treatments have changed over the past few years, but I'm open to anyone's experience.  My cat Julius has had chronic uveitis since Nov. 2009.  It started in his left eye, and after a few months of treatment was well controlled for 3 years.  He had a corneal ulcer that was presumed to be herpes-related 3 years ago, it cleared up after about 3-1/2 weeks of treatment.  So, the uveitis flared up in his other eye (right) at the end of March.  4 weeks of meds wasn't helping, and he then got another huge corneal ulcer.  To make a long story short, the ulcer eventually healed, but after 2 weeks of steroid drops for the uveitis he got another huge ulcer that is still ongoing.  After 3 months of dealing with eye issues, I'm about at the end of my rope.  How do you keep treating when it doesn't seem to be doing any good?

Have you been to a eye specialist (for Cat's)?  I know they are out there.  Just a matter of locating them.  In the meantime, have you seen this website?  Don't know if it is helpful to you or not, but seems to have lots of information about your furbaby's issues

http://veterinaryvision.com/for-vet...specific-disease-topics/feline-ophthalmology/

or there is this one, and one of these drs attended Vet school in Tucson (I see you live in AZ), so perhaps he knows someone in AZ who you could contact?  Perhaps you could even contact the Vet School at U of A?

http://www.michvet.com/Client Education Handouts/Ophthalmology handouts/complicated ulcer.pdf

Hi Mrsgreenjeens,

Yes, we have been to Eye Care for Animals in Tucson many, many times over the past few years.  We like them a lot, but they agree that our cat is a "challenge."   As of yesterday it appears the latest ulcer is healed, but now we have to treat the uveitis flareup.  I had to tell the latest vet that I would not put him on a high dose of steroid drops again, but instead we're going with a less strong steroid only once a day, and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.  I work for a vet her in SE AZ, so the specialists are really good at working with me.  I was just so frustrated over the weekend as I wasn't seeing any improvement in him at all. I hope this time we can beat it again for a long time, but we'll see.  Thanks so much for your response!!

Thank you for the links as well, I hadn't seen either of those (and I thought I'd looked up everything possible on the topic)!

This article explains why steroids may not be good for cats.

Cat Conjunctivitis and Cat Herpes with Dr. Jean Hofve

I used steroids on my ten-year old cat this year and she immediately got an ulcer in each eye. She never had these before.