Scratched Eye

So, all the visiting enemy cats to our back door finally resulted in an indoor injury to one of cats.

Cocoa was so agitated by a cat outside our back deck, that she lunged our Casper, and apparently bit his eye.

No blood. He seems to be seeing ok; is navigating the house fine.  He's in a good mood (so obviously Cocoa's transgression didn't faze him too much), and right now is laying on his back, belly up so, obviously feeling safe.

But he has a scratch on his cornea for sure.  It's very apparent.

Called the emergency vet, of course they said bring him in.  Our vet opens at 8am.  I am leaning towards waiting for the morning based on his behavior and that there is not bleeding.

Just wondering if I should bite the financial bullet and take him over now.  

Thoughts? 

If it were me I think I would wait until the morning.  I am not a vet or vet tech though so take that for what it's worth.  I am very fortunate here, the e-vet clinic that I have used in the past doesn't automatically say to bring the pet in.

Thanks for answering quickly Denice.

Yea, we're going to wait. He really does seem fine but I do know it's important to get it looked at sooner than later.  A friend in rescue also felt the same. I think we have a good bond with Casper and can read him pretty well.  Waiting until morning feels like a rational decision.

FYI, the vet saw him first thing this morning. It's a minor abrasion, lucky for him.

Flushed it out, treated it with eye drops and we have to administer the drops for 10 more days 2x per day.

$175 which including trimming his claws.

Could have been much higher if we brought him to emergency last night. Glad we assessed everything ok.

Glad it isn't too serious.  Yes, that would have cost probably 5 times that much at the ER, and wouldn't have included a pedicure

It's so difficult trying to figure out if emergency care is required or not.  We figured, he wasn't bleeding, no discharge, was playing/eating/using the box.  Walking fine. He didn't even seem fazed with Cocoa going after him. He absolutely wasn't in pain but, we could see he was not comfortable either.  I looked up info for corneal abrasions and it said it should be looked at within 24 hours - sooner if possible of course. I figured, we could wait the 10 hours until morning based on what we saw.  It was a good call for us but I do hope others will be more proactive if something similar happens most especially, if caused by a cat you do not know the health status of.  Obviously, we know Cocoabean is healthy but we still didn't know how deep the scratch was (it was not a bite as I initially thought - I just never saw her use her claws it all happened so fast!)