Cats Eye Issue

[mommytobuck]

My 14 year old cat has had a weird thing going on for about a year. Randomly, about 1x per week, I will find his left eye all watery and like 1/2 closed. It typically heals up in about 2 hours. This hasn't happened before.

At first I thought he was rubbing his face against hard things. But I have taken most hard things away and it still happens.

Then I thought he could be scratching it... so I cut his back nails.. still happened.

Then I thought it was his ears itching... so I got an anti inflammatory medicine for his ears. Still happening.

My cat definitely has an itchiness about his face but he always has.

I have asked them but they are completely blaze about it and say they can't really tell what is going on without a major investigation which they don't recommend given my cat's age and fractious behavior at the vet.

 

[sailon]

My 14 year old cat has had a weird thing going on for about a year. Randomly, about 1x per week, I will find his left eye all watery and like 1/2 closed. It typically heals up in about 2 hours. This hasn't happened before.

At first I thought he was rubbing his face against hard things. But I have taken most hard things away and it still happens.

Then I thought he could be scratching it... so I cut his back nails.. still happened.

Then I thought it was his ears itching... so I got an anti inflammatory medicine for his ears. Still happening.

My cat definitely has an itchiness about his face but he always has.

I have asked them but they are completely blaze about it and say they can't really tell what is going on without a major investigation which they don't recommend given my cat's age and fractious behavior at the vet.

Had a similar situation with Max years ago - eye watery and half closed. Came and went. Problem went on for weeks. To make a long story short, through the process of elimination, it turned out to be a food allergy. Specificlly, canned fish food. I stopped feeding her any fish products and she hasn't had the problem in years.

Food allergy? Just a thought. Good luck.

 

[MissClouseau]

I don't have experience like this with a cat but based on your description if it happened to a human my first thought would be an allergic reaction. There isn't much research about allergies in cats so hard talk with certainity but cats' allergic reactions aren't really different than humans'.

Check for allergens, both food and environmental, and try to eliminate them and see how it goes. That's the best way to find out what she might have gotten allergic to as there is no reliable allergy test for cats.

 

[mommytobuck]

Had a similar situation with Max years ago - eye watery and half closed. Came and went. Problem went on for weeks. To make a long story short, through the process of elimination, it turned out to be a food allergy. Specificlly, canned fish food. I stopped feeding her any fish products and she hasn't had the problem in years.

Food allergy? Just a thought. Good luck.

Ugh... that is all he eats. Thank you.

 

[mommytobuck]

So yesterday I gave him only chicken for his wet meals (this is something he doesn't like) and his scratching is about 90% better. Since he probably will starve if I give him just chicken or non fish food, I plan to see if I can get away with one can of fish a day for a while and the other chicken and try to work him toward all chicken.

 

[mommytobuck]

I think this could be it. I gave him a large dish of fish this morning and yesterday morning to test it and both days the eye started watering. It is possible it is also a blocked tear duct because it does seem to happen when he sleeps (like the water gets backed up) but since he is 14 and I can't really take him to the vet I think it is something we will just have to learn to live with.