eye infection prevention

Hi! I have had my cat for about 2 months now, and for the first month, he had tons of eye problems and a URI. He finally got better, but now I am noticing that his eye infection is starting to come back in one eye. (He's been fine for 3 or 4 wks, until now). When I had him checked by the vet in the beginning, he said that it was probably a viral illness like Herpes that will never go away really, just calms down. He also had a super-imposed bacterial infection that was treated with antibiotics. (loads and loads of antibiotics, for both that and the URI, I might add)...

My question is what types of things can precipitate a recurrence of his eye problems? He's an indoor only cat, only pet in the house.... Can stress cause it to come back? I have no idea what a cat would be stressed about though....

He's back on the eye drops again, so hopefully this will take care of it. I just hope that this doesn't happen over and over! He looks so pitiful when he tries to open his eye!

Thanks for you help!

Kristi :-)

If it is a herpes virus (and it sounds like it is), there really isn't a total cure for it. You can treat the symptoms but not the cause. With that said, some cats just have harder times with it than others. I have had cats with herpes virus in their eyes that have flare ups every few years, and others with flare ups every few months. Personally, there are times when I can't find the correlation between their environment and the flare up. Othertimes its very obvious (like a new URI in the house or a URI that didn't entirely clear up). Some get it bad when it hits, and others get a little runny.

I think you should talk to your vet about ongoing, recurring treatment for your baby. Find out what to look for that would require meds and what should simply be monitored. While you don't want to over medicate, you don't want to ignore it either. You also don't want to run to the vet every time his eye gets runny.

I'm sure that there are others on the forum that can offer some homeopathic type treatments.