weeping cat eye - French vet gave him a clean bill of health.

gaogier

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Hello

This cat officially now belongs to my sister after our step mum died of cancer who lived in france.

To get him back to the UK, he required a visit to the vet to make sure he is healthy. He had a weeping eye but the vets gave us the go ahead to bring him back home, however my sister is worried as its only one eye thats weeping (our other 4 cats have weeping eyes due to allergies), that die down in the winter months and boom in the summer.

This cat weighed 9kg, would vets allow us to use their scales to weigh him to make sure he is losing the right amount of weight?

Do we get him checked over by english vets?
 

mservant

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If the vet in France gave a clean bill of health for bringing the cat over it doesn't sound like an infection they were worried about, but I would still want to take the cat to a vet here to get checked out. Also, cats don;t show pain until it is very severe and your cat may be in some pain or discomfort that you don't know about.  If you have just brought your mother's cat over and taken him in it would be a good idea to introduce him to a vet anyway and find somewhere you know if an emergency comes up.  This would also be useful if you are looking for advice and support over his weight.  My vets always check a cat's weight when they see them.

If the eye is watering but clear it could be a few things including allergies or from a virus, but a vet would need to look and determine what the cause is.  I would suggest getting it looked at as if it is related to a virus it may be possible to control it through good care and this will protect the eye from unnecessary damage e.g.  if secondary infections set in.

Sorry I can't be of more help but hope you manage to find a good vet and they can sort out what is causing the watering eye.
 

cat dad

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My big guy's left eye waters and gets gunky all the time. I have to wipe it a few times a day. The vet has looked at it and said it's fine, just one of those things. Could be a blocked tear duct.

My point is it's not necessarily unusual for just one eye to weep.
 
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gaogier

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He has had this weeping eye for year or more - according to my sister.

He has gone to the vets many times due to being overweight.

We have eye wipes due to our other cats and dogs allergies so we are using them on him also.
 

mrblanche

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It could be a feline herpes infection, which can be helped a lot by an l-lysine supplement.

However, other things can happen. Our first cat had a constantly weeping eye. We took him to a vet, who checked all the obvious problems. Finally, he anesthetized Snoopy and opened his eye. He found a hair hidden far inside his eyelid. He carefully removed it, and the eye gave Snoopy no more trouble. I don't know how many vets would have gone to that trouble.
 
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gaogier

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That must be it, something so simple, but does it have to be knocked out to do this, can it be done while awake?

I know he had a full blood work done, so I am sure that if he had feline herpes infection, it would of shown up.

I know that a eye lash can be irritating, and gives watery eyes. so it must be like that for him?
 

mservant

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Feline herpes isn't usually in the general blood sceening so a seperate test is requested if it's suspected.  The cat might show other symptoms like occasional coughing like he's got something stuck in his throat, or a runny nose.
 
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gaogier

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Cat has no runny nose or cough.

I know you said that they don't test it as standard but he was given a complete blood workup, not sure if that includes Feline herpes.
 

mrblanche

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Like humans, virtually all cats have been exposed to feline herpes. The cheap way to find out if l-lysine will help is to give it to the cat for a couple of weeks. It's available at all pharmacies and won't do the cat any harm. You can find lots of discussions on the subject here on this forum.
 

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I have a 12 year old female that has had a weepy eye for years - feline herpes virus.  The older she gets, the less it weeps.  I think over time, the virus is not as aggressive, or the system eventually learns to fight it.

FWIW - I have the human version, had fever blister outbreaks on my lips since childhood. Now that I am older, like my cat, I have less problems with it.

It is one of those annoying things one learns to live with, cats too.

Keeping your cat in good health will mean a good healthy immune system - try the lysine supplement (people with herpes use this as well).
 

mservant

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I too have a cat with herpes and he gets one runny eye - it was the reason for me coming to this site!  Started with the L Lysine pretty recently and it does seem to work, usually after 4 to 7 days. If it is herpes that's causing the runny eye, apart from possible long term damage to the eye it will be very painful for the cat.  Trying the L Lysine as an alternative to more tests at the vets is a good suggestion,  so please do try.  It is not expensive and can be given in form of powder, tablets, treats or gel that you can buy quite easily on line.  I get mine from the vet as I hope to claim for it on insurance but the price is pretty similar anyway.  
 

mrblanche

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We have a couple of cats who get the weepy eye occasionally, and L-lysine usually clears it up in a few days.  Feline herpes can get a lot worse; one of our shelter cats had it and almost died.  I wouldn't have given you a nickel for his chances of living another week, but tests showed it was feline herpes, and after two weeks on L-lysine, he bounced right back.  The virus did, however, permanently damage one of his eyes.
 
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