New litter of kittens, goopy eyes. Help..

Hi, I'm new to this site. I've been reading some of the threads but I have a quick question. Our litter of 4 is a bit over 3 weeks old and Oliva started with the goopy eyes that get sealed shut. It started in one eye, now its in both. And now our orange kitten is starting to do the same. Just one eye though. My question is, if I call the vet, will they let me get some meds for it without bringing the kittens in? I'm asking that because I can't afford another vet bill right now, I just had to take one of my other kitties last week. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I've been wiping their eyes with with gauze dipped in warm water. When I do get olivia's eyes open, she has white gunk inside her eye. Thank you for taking time to read this.

Hi and welcome to TCS.

I can't answer that question because I don't know your vet, I would call them and ask them that question.  However, since some eye infections are viral, others bacterial, they may insist on seeing the kittens so they can see what is the best medication to give.

Untreated the kitten's eyes are at significant risk of scarring which would lead to diminished eyesight or loss of eyesight, in some severe cases of untreated eye infection, the result is either complete blindness and or surgical eye removal.  So as much as you may not want to pay a vet now, future vet bills when its no longer an option not to treat may be much more expensive.

Kittens with eye infections are also probably having them in conjunction with a general upper respiratory infection, which given their age would put their lives at risk untreated.  They almost certainly need medication to ward off an URI or at least keep it from gaining a bad foothold.  3 week old kittens are very fragile, and avoiding a vet now could either result in a much larger bill later, or kittens that sadly won't live.

Perhaps your vet will offer you a discount or at the least, treat the kittens as one (cat).  But the only way is for you to call the vet.

Do you have a vet that you have a relationship with?

Do you have good credit? You can apply for CareCredit, it's like a credit card for vet bills. It helped me a lot.