Hi everyone,
We've had our cat Finley for 2 and a half years now. He's a wonderful cat and we love him to pieces. Shortly after we got him, we started having a problem with eye swelling that has continued throughout his life. As he grew older it kept continuing in the same cycle: one or both eyes would be swollen, we'd bring him to the vet, give him some drops, and the flare would go down for a while. Recently the flare-ups started becoming more frequent and the vet suggested it might be herpes. We tried treating with Lysine and had a bit of success, but finally in September the swelling became quite bad in the left eye and he developed an ulcer.
By then we decided to do the panel test to see what was going on. We also brought him to a specialist (feline ophthalmologist) who confirmed that his retina and shape of the eye are fine, so there's nothing wrong with his eye such as eyelashes growing inwards or anything like that. We got the test results back, and it turned out he was negative for herpes, but positive for mycoplasma. Sometimes he can be quite sniffly so I think that explains those symptoms also.
To treat the mycoplasma, for two weeks we had him on Doxycycline pills every 12 hours, and then drops for his eyes every 8 hours. I can't remember the name of the drops but I know they were discontinued and therefore specially prepared by the specialist.
After the two weeks his eyes were doing quite well. We finished the drops and pills and, within 48 hours of stopping treatment, his eyes had become quite red and swollen. We brought him to an overnight clinic to check that there wasn't another ulcer (there wasn't). They and our usual vet said we should extend the treatment, so we've continued with the drops and Doxycycline for another 3 weeks. We've also been giving him Lysine. We've been VERY careful to give the medication on time and follow all instructions. We have about a week of treatment left and we were supposed to go Thursday to do a panel test again to see if the mycoplasma is gone.
Unfortunately, we've been frustrated because healing has just been really up and down. When we stopped giving treatment and his symptoms started showing up again, we found that every time he wiped his eyes during grooming, they swelled up. Even since we started the pills and drops again, his eyes swell up whenever he rubs them. To prevent him from cleaning his eyes we put him in a cone, which has helped. But even in the cone, over the past few days he's had some swelling, and tonight his right eye is very swollen and red.
We have no idea why as obviously he hasn't been able to groom that eye, and he got all of his medication today as usual.
We are at our wits end with this. The tests and specialists costs are really adding up, but besides that, our poor kitty has been in a cone and on this treatment for nearly a month. It's also really hard to find anything about mycoplasma felis online. Does anyone have any experience in treating upper respiratory mycoplasma in cats? Since this has been going on since he was a baby, is it normal that the treatment is taking so many weeks? Why would his eyes swell up whenever he rubs them?
Any advice you guys have we would appreciate. We're going to bring him to the vet tomorrow but would like some other thoughts. We are just so discouraged and want to fix this.
We've had our cat Finley for 2 and a half years now. He's a wonderful cat and we love him to pieces. Shortly after we got him, we started having a problem with eye swelling that has continued throughout his life. As he grew older it kept continuing in the same cycle: one or both eyes would be swollen, we'd bring him to the vet, give him some drops, and the flare would go down for a while. Recently the flare-ups started becoming more frequent and the vet suggested it might be herpes. We tried treating with Lysine and had a bit of success, but finally in September the swelling became quite bad in the left eye and he developed an ulcer.
By then we decided to do the panel test to see what was going on. We also brought him to a specialist (feline ophthalmologist) who confirmed that his retina and shape of the eye are fine, so there's nothing wrong with his eye such as eyelashes growing inwards or anything like that. We got the test results back, and it turned out he was negative for herpes, but positive for mycoplasma. Sometimes he can be quite sniffly so I think that explains those symptoms also.
To treat the mycoplasma, for two weeks we had him on Doxycycline pills every 12 hours, and then drops for his eyes every 8 hours. I can't remember the name of the drops but I know they were discontinued and therefore specially prepared by the specialist.
After the two weeks his eyes were doing quite well. We finished the drops and pills and, within 48 hours of stopping treatment, his eyes had become quite red and swollen. We brought him to an overnight clinic to check that there wasn't another ulcer (there wasn't). They and our usual vet said we should extend the treatment, so we've continued with the drops and Doxycycline for another 3 weeks. We've also been giving him Lysine. We've been VERY careful to give the medication on time and follow all instructions. We have about a week of treatment left and we were supposed to go Thursday to do a panel test again to see if the mycoplasma is gone.
Unfortunately, we've been frustrated because healing has just been really up and down. When we stopped giving treatment and his symptoms started showing up again, we found that every time he wiped his eyes during grooming, they swelled up. Even since we started the pills and drops again, his eyes swell up whenever he rubs them. To prevent him from cleaning his eyes we put him in a cone, which has helped. But even in the cone, over the past few days he's had some swelling, and tonight his right eye is very swollen and red.
We have no idea why as obviously he hasn't been able to groom that eye, and he got all of his medication today as usual.We are at our wits end with this. The tests and specialists costs are really adding up, but besides that, our poor kitty has been in a cone and on this treatment for nearly a month. It's also really hard to find anything about mycoplasma felis online. Does anyone have any experience in treating upper respiratory mycoplasma in cats? Since this has been going on since he was a baby, is it normal that the treatment is taking so many weeks? Why would his eyes swell up whenever he rubs them?
Any advice you guys have we would appreciate. We're going to bring him to the vet tomorrow but would like some other thoughts. We are just so discouraged and want to fix this.
I floated the possibility of allergies by the vet a few times, but she said that basically, they would expect to see other symptoms if it were allergies, especially skin issues. We asked the specialist and they repeated the same thing. Other than this recurring eye problem (and some sniffling) he doesn't have any other symptoms and he's really healthy and active. We tried changing some things around in September (stopped wearing cologne/perfume, scentless soap and deodorant, changed litter) just in case, but there wasn't an improvement.
