Older cat's eye is red and goopy: Vetropolycin?

Our older cat's right eye is drippy with discolored goop. And the inside of her lid seem a little swollen and red. We have Vetropolycin from our younger cat's eye infection a couple years back. It's not the HC kind, just bacitracin zinc, neomycin sulfate and polymyxin. Do you think we can try to put a little of this stuff in her eye or is there any risk that her eye could end up really messed up from it? I don't know if maybe our other cat cut her eye a little or what but she's older and pretty ornery and taking her to the vet is really a last resort.

Thanks!

Hi and welcome to TCS

Because you are not sure exactly what is wrong with your cat's eye, I definitely would not give her that medication. It has most likely expired also. The symptoms you have described could be caused by a number of different things, and only a vet will be able to tell you for sure. I understand the difficulty of going to the vet with an ornery cat, my Abby doesn't do well on vet visits, but it really is necessary in this case.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

We cannot gve you vet advice, we are not vets.
The problem with just guessing and using the stuff is whether or not it has a steroid in it. If it does, and your cat has a scratch on the eye, your cat could very easily go blind. The vet needs to look at your cat and check out its eye closely for scratches before prescribing eye medications. Your vet will probably give you VetropolycinHC, Triple Antibiotic Ointment or Terramycin. Only the vet can determine which one depending on the condition of your cats eyes.

Plus if it is a couple years old it has probably expired.

Yeah, that makes sense folks. I guess I was just hoping to give her some quick relief but you're right. It's not worth the risk.

For a quick relief, use a washcloth with warm water, you can keep her in a bathroom and run the shower or bathtub with steaming hot water to steam up the room. She really should see a vet though. With discoloured goopy eyes and red swollen eyelids, it sounds like it is getting pretty serious.

If it was just watery, i would say it is probably just dust and to keep an eye on it, but I think you are well past that point now.

Eye meds that are a couple of years old should be tossed. They could possibly introduce a worse infection.

Make an appointment with the vet. Likely s/he'll put a fluorescent dye in the eye to check for problems with the cornea, then use a steroid ointment if it checks out fine.

The trouble is that she has a heart condition and we try to take her to the vet as rarely as possible because the stress is no good for her. But we'll call the vet and see what they say. Thanks for all the advice.