Just noticed my kitten's eye is red and can see her third eyelid

silmarien · Jan 8, 2015

Hi, sorry, I'm panicking right now but I have NO money and I just noticed my 10 week old kitten has what appears to be blood on the iris of her right eyeball and that I can see her third eyelid in both eyes too often. Is this life threatening? Is it an emergency? What can I do other than the obvious, go to the vet, to help her? Is she in pain? I'm really upset and freaking out and just need to know how bad this symptom is.

PS Her eyes are usually greenish blue with some amber, never reddish like ONLY her right eye is right now. Also, how could this have happened??

catpack · Jan 8, 2015

It sounds as if your kitten may have an upper respiratory infection, conjunctivitis and/or the herpes virus.

If symptoms just appeared today, not likely an emergency. Have you noticed any sneezing or coughing? Any discharge from the eyes?

How long have you had the kitten?

silmarien · Jan 8, 2015

DELETED (tried to add the same pic I have below, and failed miserably)

silmarien · Jan 8, 2015

snugglecat · Jan 8, 2015

CatPack said:
It sounds as if your kitten may have an upper respiratory infection, conjunctivitis and/or the herpes virus.

If symptoms just appeared today, not likely an emergency. Have you noticed any sneezing or coughing? Any discharge from the eyes?

How long have you had the kitten?

I agree with CatPack.

silmarien · Jan 8, 2015

So if she has the Feline Herpes Virus, a cold, conjunctivitis or whatnot, how can I help her? All I have left is some Clavamox but I am not thinking this is a bacterial issue, right? Does she need special eye drops?

Thanks again for your guys' help!

ETA Her eyes usually look like this:

DSC08200 - Version 2.JPG

silmarien
Jan 8, 2015

hexiesfriend · Jan 8, 2015

Sorry silmarien I saw the pic for a sec and then it disappeared. Does it look like blood or red actually inside the eye? Or is it red around the eye?

silmarien · Jan 8, 2015

Can you see the image now? Looks like blood floating/pooling around the iris to me.

DSC08410.jpg

silmarien
Jan 8, 2015

hexiesfriend · Jan 8, 2015

Yep I see it now. Has she been sneezing or throwing up? She could have also ran into something, kittens are notorious for running into things. It doesn't look like and emergency situation where you have to take her now but she probably needs drops from the vet to heal it.

catpack · Jan 9, 2015

If it is herpes or an URI, she will need medication. Either condition left untreated can turn very serious, so best to have her checked out by your vet sooner rather than later.

reikitty · Jan 9, 2015

I have dealt with tons of herpes/URI/Conjunctivitis what have you and I can't recall a single case of the iris/eye itself bleeding... That's what has me concerned. I'm thinking she's maybe bonked her self pretty good and caused a slight injury to the eye. I'd keep a close eye on it. (heheh)

Now it's possible if her eyes were blue when you got her it's just her eyes changing colors. Though usually it's a slow process and both eyes usually gradually change color. But there are cats with two eye colors out there. so it's possible one was making a slow change and you just now noticed it when the change was complete. Kittens also do they eye change at 6-8 weeks old, but I've had a few who hung onto their blue eyes till 12 weeks.

If the Clavamox is over 10 days old it's going bad and shouldn't be used. You can get terramycin for eyes. It costs about 10-15 bucks a tube and it will help if she has a little lingering infection in her eyes. I'd treat her for it a couple days in both eyes.

She probably also has herpes, which is pretty common in kitties. It typically manifests as eye infections or upper respiratory infections and usually is pretty dormant but stress can trigger it. I'd recommend some L-lysine treats too for her to help if it is herpes.

I'd also really recommend getting that eye check out it's just weird and not normal. But if you can't keep a close watch on her for the next couple days, if she stops eating or using the litterbox she needs to go the vet ASAP.

silmarien · Jan 14, 2015

Got another pic, dunno how helpful it is though. I'm betting Herpes or URI. I have less than 10 day old clavamox so I'll try that and if it doesn't clear up, I'll go to the vet. She is now sneezing profusely and her eye change went away for some reason. She still has blue eyes at 11-12 weeks old which astonishes me because I see green and orange in them too and was SURE her eyes would change. Hmmm.

DSC08460.JPG

silmarien
Jan 8, 2015

silmarien · Jan 14, 2015

ReiKitty said:
I have dealt with tons of herpes/URI/Conjunctivitis what have you and I can't recall a single case of the iris/eye itself bleeding... That's what has me concerned. I'm thinking she's maybe bonked her self pretty good and caused a slight injury to the eye. I'd keep a close eye on it. (heheh)

Now it's possible if her eyes were blue when you got her it's just her eyes changing colors. Though usually it's a slow process and both eyes usually gradually change color. But there are cats with two eye colors out there. so it's possible one was making a slow change and you just now noticed it when the change was complete. Kittens also do they eye change at 6-8 weeks old, but I've had a few who hung onto their blue eyes till 12 weeks.

If the Clavamox is over 10 days old it's going bad and shouldn't be used. You can get terramycin for eyes. It costs about 10-15 bucks a tube and it will help if she has a little lingering infection in her eyes. I'd treat her for it a couple days in both eyes.

She probably also has herpes, which is pretty common in kitties. It typically manifests as eye infections or upper respiratory infections and usually is pretty dormant but stress can trigger it. I'd recommend some L-lysine treats too for her to help if it is herpes.

I'd also really recommend getting that eye check out it's just weird and not normal. But if you can't keep a close watch on her for the next couple days, if she stops eating or using the litterbox she needs to go the vet ASAP.

She may have bonked herself pretty well, but that seems to have gone away. Her iris is blue again. WHen her nose started to bleed, she had blood on the third eyelid of BOTH eyes which really scared me but she's doing well, and just sneezing a lot, now. No blood in the eyes at all. What could've caused the bloody nose?

reikitty · Jan 16, 2015

I had kitten that was smacked really hard with a hand in the face. I think it fractured his nose, he had a bloody nose on and off for a couple of days and some swelling.

I wonder if she did injure herself pretty good and it's all cleared up now. Or she inhaled something up her nose that was highly irritant.

If it's gone away and it doesn't happen again, I'd just call it one of those weird things that happens and not worry about it.

At this age she's highly likely to keep her blue eyes, but they still could change! Or be a more muted blue.... I've never had a cats eye change past 6 months so you should know for sure by then!

catmomjulia · Jan 16, 2015

Aw poor thing! I agree it does not resemble a URI to me. Do you have a local Humanes society? If so they may have a very low cost vet! There is one by me and it is only $25 for a vet check up, which would be a good way to see if it is serious or not! You may only need some antibiotics if it is nothing serious! But I will be honest with you and say it does look very alarming and eye injuries, while likely nothing life threatening can go south very quickly and need to be seen by a vet as soon as you are able to. Hope this helps!

catmomjulia · Jan 16, 2015

silmarien said:
She may have bonked herself pretty well, but that seems to have gone away. Her iris is blue again. WHen her nose started to bleed, she had blood on the third eyelid of BOTH eyes which really scared me but she's doing well, and just sneezing a lot, now. No blood in the eyes at all. What could've caused the bloody nose?

That is very strange! I am going to do a bit of research and he back to you!

catmomjulia · Jan 16, 2015

CatmomJulia said:
That is very strange! I am going to do a bit of research and he back to you!

So strange, I searched and searched and could not did any connection of blood in eye an sneezing! The sneezing and nose on its own is probably a sure sign of an URI but the eye bleeding is not fitting in. Very did an definitely needs to be seen as a vet sorry

silmarien · Jan 20, 2015

Thanks for your help, guys, I'll take her in as soon as I dig myself out of this financial hole

I also have a 6 month old used to be outdoor kitten now is indoor and she bit off the tip of he tongue (doesn't surprise me - she plays hard). I'd imagine the mouth pain from that would cause eating to be difficult as she won't even eat wet food, let alone dry (i feed dry and wet food). I don't want her to get too skinnier, are there any ways to hand feed a sick cat like this?

Just noticed my kitten's eye is red and can see her third eyelid

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