cat poked other cat in the eye, questions

Last night Rin caught Moki in the eye with her claw, it was very minor. Today I can hardly find the spot but I'm concerned about infection. Moki is squinting a little but doesn't seem in severe pain. I've got her a very appointment at 4 today but I'm wondering if this is necessary for a poke.

I'm afraid they are just going to give me antibiotic eye drops which I have in abundance from when the cats got eye infections. The drops I have are tobramycin, I haven't given her any since I'm not sure what to do. Should I just give her drops and cancel the appointment? Maybe I should just take the drops with me in case, that way I won't need more if the vet says they are okay to use.

I'm not sure if anyone is going to advice you not to take your cat to the vet but if you have a good relationship with your vet, you might see if they will talk with you on the phone and discuss what you should do.  Maybe they will say wait a day or two and if no improvement then bring him in. Or maybe they will say something else.

I wouldn't give the drops just yet. There's always a chance of needing to culture something and the drops could be a problem with that. In that she's squinting, it wouldn't hurt for her to be seen. Especially with the weekend coming up!

I've had a ton of kittens wrestling around with their littermates and get a scratched or poked eye, at 8-9 weeks their play becomes like WWF!!

My most recent one is probably the worst case, it happened during playtime, and I could almost watch her eye become blood red and swollen, tearing badly and just awful! I thought she may even lose sight in that eye.

I rushed her to the emergency vet, by the time I got her in it had gone down a tremendous amt. The vet put a dye in it and showed me the scratch, but what they will mainly be looking for is deep damage that may cause her vision to become impaired.

I was sent home with drops (which I also had) and that was that.

Their eyes and limbs seem to have an incredibly fast recovery time from trauma.

There is a great chance if you put antibiotic drops or ointment in the eye now and keep a close watch, he will recover quickly just fine.

If the scratch were deeper, he wouldn't show only a bit of squinting the next day, it would likely still be worse.

The only adult I had to actually take to the vet who was scratched had a very bad one across his eye from an unfixed male cat, at the time I trapped this one. It was very clear to me though that he would need something more done, and the vet gave me this teeny tiny tube of liquid gold (at $45.00 a tube) and I treated his eye with that for a good 10 days, and he recovered fine as well.

It's your call really, but if you decide to put some drops in it and keep a watch that it gets better soon, that would probably be just as good if you are certain it is a light surface scratch.

Usually a deeper scratch can be seen easily.

While it is never a bad idea to get a professional's opinion, maybe it's fine to give it 1 day before deciding to take him to the vet.

if she is squinting the eye could be ulcerated. i would definitely keep the appointment. just tell the vet which meds you already have, or better yet take the meds with you.

cprcheetah, I have to agree, I keep thinking about my post here and I shouldn't have said it's probably okay to hold off, it may very well be but it's actually best to just go ahead and keep your appt, just to be sure, take the drops you have with you, no point in buying more of the same, but yes, better safe than sorry.

Let us know

I'm still taking her, I'd hate for something to happen to her eye. I'm just going to bring the drops with me just in case we can use them along with whatever else the Dr might give her. I know that just because I can't see the spot doesn't mean an infection isn't brewing.

I'll update after the appointment. We're not going to our normal cat vet since she can't get her in until Tuesday, we are going to the place we take our dogs so I'm not too worried about her getting treated well.

The vet took a thorough look at her eye and told me the antibiotic drops should do the trick and he thought it looked really minor. The spot on her eye was so tiny and already on the mend though she did get a tiny scratch on her lid which is why she is still squinting a little bit.

She did not enjoy the car ride, she pooped and peed in the carrier.

Poor thing.  Glad you were able to get to the vet.  I have kitty who does the same thing in the car, every single time.

We used to walk her on a harness and leash outside and took her for car rides often, we even brought her from UT to KS and back to UT again and she was wonderful. I think it's been a while since she's been anywhere so maybe it was just a little scary, plus she prefers to ride in my lap and not in the kennel which we made her stay in because our windows aren't working and I don't want her to slip away.

Her eye is looking back to normal now, hopefully we don't have anymore more eye scratching between housemates.