3 week old kitten with ruptured eye/melting ulcer, second opinion?

Just going off what you are describing, it sounds like it would be best to have the eye completely removed. Think of the eye now as a chronic open wound. It is so hard to keep infections at bay (but it IS possible with proper eye care/medication.)

We had a similar situation about 3 yrs ago. We waited until the kitten was 5 months old and did the eye removal/neuter at the same time (these were VERY sick kittens.)

That kitty will be 3 in June and is doing excellent!

Yeah it came up when she first had symptoms and the vet said then that we either needed to get it to completely resolve, or get her to the point where they could safely remove it, and even she said they would just do the spay at the same time. At that point she was the smallest kitten, had diarrhea, and had already almost died on me twice (faded to the point where I just stuck her in my shirt and was prepared to hold on to her till the end) and the vet said if she was not going to thrive plus have a nasty infection that perhaps we ought to think about euthanizing her and I refused! She was I think 82 grams when I brought her home and actually lost weight and went under 80 at one point. She was barely 99 at that appointment, and today she is 397. She'll break 400 tomorrow. I bet that's why she didn't want to try the antivirals, she probably didn't think she'd make it.

Do you think the tobramycin is enough to stave off infection, or should she be on oral abx as well?

I was able to get a picture of it. As you can tell she doesn't like me prying it open.

Another question... if removal really is the only option, will the antiviral do much? I guess if anything it will prevent infection of the other eye, huh?

I'm thinking I should still take her to the regular vet on Monday (the rescue's vet, not my personal vet, as she was the one who didn't want to do the antivirals in the first place).

I'm really upset that this happened, I feel like it was totally preventable, and now the poor thing has to stick out for a few more weeks. I've dealt with herpes and URI's in older cats and gone through the oral and topical meds for various symptoms, but I feel really bad for not knowing enough about it in little babies to be assertive enough to get her on the antivirals sooner. [emoji]128549[/emoji]

If there is a good thing, it's that she is eating well and seems to be in pretty good spirits (considering). She was batting at her brother and sister's tails after we got back from the vet. She is not *as* spunky as she was yesterday, but at least she doesn't seem to be suffering tremendously.

Yes, the antiviral is still of great benefit. The Idox doesn't just stay in the eye, it coats the entire sinus cavity. But, there can still be more structural damage done to the bad eye so, all in all, best to keep all meds on board.

As for oral antibiotic, it's definitely something to think about. I certainly don't see any harm in it.

That's good to know. I'll ask about it on Monday. I do have a brand new bottle if Clavamox (hasn't even been reconstituted yet), but I have no idea of the dose. I also got her weight wrong, it was 349, not 397 tonight's weight was 359.

Thanks for all they put, very helpful!

Here is a video of them playing. [emoji]128525[/emoji]

Clavamox is what my Opthomologist recommended for our recent kittens (they were 6 wks and 0.9 and 1 lb) though we had already started Amoxicillin (they were responding well to this, so we didn't change.)

Do know what dose he was going to prescribe?

As an aside, my male kitten (the black one in the video) is just over a pound and he's only 3 weeks old. He's huge!

I don't have the dosage. I do know that our kittens' Amoxicillin doseage is a *fraction* of the doseage for a 6 mo+ cat.

Yeah I could crunch the numbers. The dose was on the leaflet but it was for a 10 pound cat, so I'd have to do the math. Not a big deal, but thought if you knew off hand it would easier.

Sigh. She didn't want to eat last night or this morning. Last night I was able to get a quarter of her normal amount into her, and this morning I finally just tube fed her as it was going on 12 hours with hardly anything. No fever as of yet, but her face has to hurt, poor thing.

Did you give her the Clavamox yet?  She needs to be on a systemic antibiotic. Yes, I would suggest you go to the rescue vet tomorrow, they probably have a lot  more experience with this sort of thing.  As I said, the one we got in with eye already ruptured did not have surgery for the eye for a couple of months.  Even after it was healed, she was quite resistant to any messing with her face, I think because of being medicated in the eye for so long.  Other than that, she was fine and friendly and is doing terrific in her adoptive home now.  I think she was about 9-10 months old when we finally were able to adopt her out because they didn't do the eye surgery for a long time.

No I haven't started the clavamox, I have to figure out the dose. I was hoping to wait till tomorrow but I may have to dig out the leaflet and figure it out. I remember it being a ridiculously small amount based on the average dose being for a 10 pound count. She did eat pretty well at the last feeding. No tube necessary, and she was playing. I'm hoping it was just that she got a bit hypoglycemic after refusing two feedings. I added a couple drops of nutrical to the tube and watered it down with pedialite so it seems to have perked her up.

Now to find the insert for the clavamox...

If you can't find the insert, there is probably info on the bottle, and/or you can find info on the internet.

I found it. It just says 1ml twice a day for cats. For dogs it says 1ml/10lbs, and if I remember correctly I think it just assumes the average cat is 10 pounds, so if you used that dose and it was .1ml/pound, and she is .80lbs, that's .08ml. Right?

That's such a tiny dose, sounds right to me.

I have the first dose a couple hours ago and will give the second one at their late night feeding.

math is not my forte BUT if your cat weighs EIGHT pounds the dose should be 4/5ths of that give to a TEN pound animal. And 4/5ths of one ml is .80ml.

You're right @mycatwasthebest, math is NOT your forte!    Right idea but wrong weight.

@SuperPoopergot it right.  Her kitten is only 0.8 pounds, i.e. not 8 lbs., so divide 0.8 ml  by 10!!  0.08 ml is the correct dose using that scale.

I was at our shelter today and asked what they use for the teeny tiny ones, and they start with a double dose, then go to the regular dose.  So you might want to give them a second dose tonight.

lol...I forgot its a TINY kitten...was truly thinking of an eight lb cat

and off2workIgo!

GO BLACKHAWKS!!!

It says on the leaflet twice a day so I was going to give another dose tonight. Should I continue with twice a day, or only once a day?

Her eye is really goopy tonight. Don't know if the eye has collapsed even more, but I've had to soak the gunk off at every feeding. The instructions for the tobramycin say twice a day but that doesn't seen like enough to me. In humans it's every 4 hours. What do you guys do for the drops?