Advice on a Crusty Eye at 2.5 Weeks???

Hi everyone, this is my first post on the cat site so I'll briefly introduce my kitties in the following paragraph, but as this topic is sort of urgent you can just skip that for now and read on to "the issue" if you'd like. Also my apologies if there's a better place for this thread.

So my brother and I have recently adopted a stray short hair cat (whom we've named Mishi) who was clearly pregnant. We would have had her spayed but it seemed she was due any day then, and sure enough, she gave birth to three lively kittens almost a week later! At three days old we brought the whole family in to the vet for good reports on all of them, and so far they've been feeding, sleeping, and gaining weight normally. At 2 and a half weeks old they're now starting to walk (or trying to, lol!!) We also haven't named them as we'd like to leave that to the adopters, and speaking of which we have more people who want a kitten than we have kittens, so that's one less thing to worry about

THE ISSUE: We've just noticed that the little girl kitten's left eye appears crusted shut. It opened again shortly after waking from her nap, but it still looks under the weather compared to the other eye and she rubs it with her arm occasionally

I've read up on conjunctivitis and feline herpes and I'm suspicious because Mishi (the mama) has done this cough/sneeze thing which could mean upper resp. infection (although it's been a while since she's done that), and when I mentioned that to the vet she said to watch out for sore eyes among other things.

I know the #1 thing to do here is call the vet but the problem is that it's 6:30 on a Saturday night and they're closed, and I'm not sure if they'll be open tomorrow.  The emergency vet is not really a option because they're super-expensive and we're fighting college bills right now. I am going to make a vet appt. as soon as they start answering the phone because I've read baaaad things about this crusty eye with such young kittens but for the time being I want to help her any way I can.

So does anyone know of good products / home remedies for crusty eye that are safe on a 2.5 week-old kitten? I've found products on store websites for this but they're mostly for grown kitties. Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

Hello and welcome!!

Mild bacterial eye infections are very common in young kittens, and it does sound as if she/they may have inherited mom's uri (herpesvirus) as well.

The most important thing is to keep her eye from sticking shut, because it will not allow the drainage to come out of the eye, it will back up and surround the eye and socket which will cause bigger issues.

If a vet were open I would recommend getting some antibacterial eye ointment, but since they are not, do the following.

Make a cup of hot tea, and allow it to cool down a bit.

While still warm, dip a washcloth in to the tea and hold it on her eye. This will soften the crud after a couple minutes, then dip it again and wipe gently across her eye to remove the goopy drainage.

Repeat this about 3 times a day, by the time the vet is open again on Monday you might not need ointment at all.

If you do then just call the vet they saw already so you can get the ointment without paying for another visit.

Does it matter what kind of tea it is? All I have right now is green tea but I'll make a run to the store for the best results.

Fortunately this sounds less critical than I was afraid of. The hardest part will be keeping the critter still long enough, lol!

Green tea is just fine.

It's not that it sounded so bad, but when they are stuck or crusted shut it can become a problem for them, so it's good that you asked.