My cats get irritated eyes

Let me preface this - I already have an appointment with the Vet at 5 today, but I was seeing is anyone had any thoughts.

On Saturday evening I noticed Sylvester's left eye seemed really pink around the edges, and even a little wet. Sunday morning it looked a lot better, although perhaps still a little irritated. I called and made an appointment with my vet.

What worries me is this is not the first time this has happened. A few months ago both Annie and Sylvester's eyes seemed to get irritated. The 3rd eyelid does not come out, but if I look I can see that it is rather red and irritated. It went away within a few days. It also doesn't seem to effect both eyes at once. They don't secrete anything more than their normal goo when irritated either (as far as I can tell).

Unfortunately since it goes away so fast I'm taking both the girls in today and their eyes look fine. But I'm hoping the vet can still give some advice or some medication to sooth it next time it happens (it looks painful).

Any thoughts?

hard to say really, it could be anything from dust from the litter irritating their eyes (you could buy feline pine or yesterday's news instead) or it could be the start of an upper respritory infection. it could even be something more serious. the vet will probably give you some triple antibiotic ointment or terramycin and inform you on what to do further. good luck and don't worry, it's probably nothing.

I've switched litters in between the eye problems (from Fresh Step to World's Best) so I don't think it's that. But I do wonder if there was something in the air that did it, but it was months in between so I'm not sure what it would be.

have you sprayed air freshner recently, sprayed a different polish or maybe even changed the soap powder in your clothes?
another thing could be hayfiever but then you would expect it to be in both eyes