Hello.. New to the forum and hoping someone can offer helpful suggestions..
Tuesday of last week, we noticed that our 10.5 year old sweetie Zora had a bit of her third eyelid inflamed on her left eye. She had been unusually lethargic and had diarrhea over the prior weekend. The next day, more of her third eyelid was inflamed and protruding from her eye. Her usual vet wasn't available so we took her to another highly rated vet for an evaluation. That vet performed a number of tests (Schirmer Tear Test, Corneal stain) and those tests came out fine. She pushed both eyes and did not detect any mass behind her eyes. She gave a diagnosis of severe conjunctivitis and prescribed antibiotic drops. She also told us to follow up with our normal vet (or her office) within one week and to schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist, though she did not say there was an emergency. The doctor also put her in an e-cone. The earliest ophthalmology appointment we were able to get was for April 11th..
Our cat struggled mightily against the application of the drops but we applied them that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with no noticeable improvement. In fact, her condition worsened and more of the third eyelid became inflamed and continued to sort of bubble out of her eye. So we took her to her normal vet on Saturday. The vet repeated the same exams and reported that he did find it harder to push her left eye back compared to her right eye so he's worried there might be a mass. He also suggested administered a shot of Convenia and prescribed Terramycin ointment to be applied to the eyeball twice per day for a week. He told us to stop using the other drops (which were ofloxacin) and he suggested taking her out of the e-cone.
It's only been one day of course but we noticed that her eye has not improved at all since yesterday. In fact, her third eyelid is even more swollen than it was last week. I'm attaching photos showing the progression from last Tuesday through today. Her left eye is now almost completely covered by her swollen third eyelid, she's totally miserable and in obvious pain. She's still eating (though less than normal) and using her litter box. But she's not really playing and spends most of the day sleeping. We also found her hiding a few times, which is alarming for us.
Zora has never had an eye infection before and we've never seen anything like this, so I'm freaking out at this point and anxious about her losing her eyesight. The original eyedrops didn't work, though we only used them for two and a half days. The ointment seems to be a better approach because it's easier to apply -- but it hasn't made any improvement at all in the last day. Has anyone ever seen an eye condition like this before? I'm considering whether I should rush her back to the vet or an emergency animal hospital.. or give the ointment and convenia shot more time. How do we know if we're dealing with an eye emergency? And what do we do if we can't get an opthamology appointment anytime soon? We want to take her somewhere reputable and we're terrified of having to bring her to a 24/7 vet hospital in our neighborhood because almost all of them we can find have awful and alarming reviews.
Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated..
Tuesday of last week, we noticed that our 10.5 year old sweetie Zora had a bit of her third eyelid inflamed on her left eye. She had been unusually lethargic and had diarrhea over the prior weekend. The next day, more of her third eyelid was inflamed and protruding from her eye. Her usual vet wasn't available so we took her to another highly rated vet for an evaluation. That vet performed a number of tests (Schirmer Tear Test, Corneal stain) and those tests came out fine. She pushed both eyes and did not detect any mass behind her eyes. She gave a diagnosis of severe conjunctivitis and prescribed antibiotic drops. She also told us to follow up with our normal vet (or her office) within one week and to schedule an appointment with an ophthalmologist, though she did not say there was an emergency. The doctor also put her in an e-cone. The earliest ophthalmology appointment we were able to get was for April 11th..
Our cat struggled mightily against the application of the drops but we applied them that Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with no noticeable improvement. In fact, her condition worsened and more of the third eyelid became inflamed and continued to sort of bubble out of her eye. So we took her to her normal vet on Saturday. The vet repeated the same exams and reported that he did find it harder to push her left eye back compared to her right eye so he's worried there might be a mass. He also suggested administered a shot of Convenia and prescribed Terramycin ointment to be applied to the eyeball twice per day for a week. He told us to stop using the other drops (which were ofloxacin) and he suggested taking her out of the e-cone.
It's only been one day of course but we noticed that her eye has not improved at all since yesterday. In fact, her third eyelid is even more swollen than it was last week. I'm attaching photos showing the progression from last Tuesday through today. Her left eye is now almost completely covered by her swollen third eyelid, she's totally miserable and in obvious pain. She's still eating (though less than normal) and using her litter box. But she's not really playing and spends most of the day sleeping. We also found her hiding a few times, which is alarming for us.
Zora has never had an eye infection before and we've never seen anything like this, so I'm freaking out at this point and anxious about her losing her eyesight. The original eyedrops didn't work, though we only used them for two and a half days. The ointment seems to be a better approach because it's easier to apply -- but it hasn't made any improvement at all in the last day. Has anyone ever seen an eye condition like this before? I'm considering whether I should rush her back to the vet or an emergency animal hospital.. or give the ointment and convenia shot more time. How do we know if we're dealing with an eye emergency? And what do we do if we can't get an opthamology appointment anytime soon? We want to take her somewhere reputable and we're terrified of having to bring her to a 24/7 vet hospital in our neighborhood because almost all of them we can find have awful and alarming reviews.
Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated..
