Hello everyone-
I'm new here, and I really need some good advice! I'll try to be brief, but bear with me.............it's been a troublesome couple of years!
About a year and a half ago my cat (she's about 5) developed an eye infection. It's characteristics include drainage (grayish-green), shutting, and swelling. She suffered through many repeated visits to the vet and many unsuccessful doses of eye ointments, drops, and pills. As you know, getting a cat to cooperate while administering medication is chaotic, to say the least!
The infection seemed to go away or get better and then suddenly spring back up. This went on for about six months. Finally, my vet did a culture and the results showed that she had staphylococcus sp & pseudomonas sp. She was given an ointment. This medication cleared it up.
BUT....about 10 months later, the same symptoms sprang back up. We assumed it was the same thing, so we treated her with the same medication that worked the first time. It didn't work! We tried other ointments and none of them worked. Eventually, my vet threw in the towel and referred me to an ophthalmologist, which would be fine except there are none where I live!
So, we waited to get an appointment with one that was four hours away. By the time the appointment came, her eye looked fine, so I canceled the appointment. Ever since them (about three months ago), her eye will start to look a little puffy, so I'll rinse it with saline solution and by the morning, it's fine. I assumed she had some dormant thing that just flared up once in a while.
The reason I am posting is because today her eye is very swollen (she'll only open it about half way) and it is draining a large amount of green discharge. It is significantly worse than it's been in the past three months. I know that if I go back to the vet they are going to put her through the whole trauma that she has already been through just to end up at the same place.....nowhere!
Can anyone shed some light on this for me? I am really at a loss with her. I don't know what to do at this point. Not only is it awful for her, but it is time consuming and expensive for me! Anything thoughts would be much appreciated.
PS
She quite eating about two weeks ago. We've had to change her food and everything. After the change she started eating for about two days. Now she quit eating again entirely. This eating thing occurred about two weeks before the eye flare up. Could they be related? She's never quit eating before. I figured she was just being finicky.
I'm new here, and I really need some good advice! I'll try to be brief, but bear with me.............it's been a troublesome couple of years!
About a year and a half ago my cat (she's about 5) developed an eye infection. It's characteristics include drainage (grayish-green), shutting, and swelling. She suffered through many repeated visits to the vet and many unsuccessful doses of eye ointments, drops, and pills. As you know, getting a cat to cooperate while administering medication is chaotic, to say the least!
The infection seemed to go away or get better and then suddenly spring back up. This went on for about six months. Finally, my vet did a culture and the results showed that she had staphylococcus sp & pseudomonas sp. She was given an ointment. This medication cleared it up.
BUT....about 10 months later, the same symptoms sprang back up. We assumed it was the same thing, so we treated her with the same medication that worked the first time. It didn't work! We tried other ointments and none of them worked. Eventually, my vet threw in the towel and referred me to an ophthalmologist, which would be fine except there are none where I live!
So, we waited to get an appointment with one that was four hours away. By the time the appointment came, her eye looked fine, so I canceled the appointment. Ever since them (about three months ago), her eye will start to look a little puffy, so I'll rinse it with saline solution and by the morning, it's fine. I assumed she had some dormant thing that just flared up once in a while.
The reason I am posting is because today her eye is very swollen (she'll only open it about half way) and it is draining a large amount of green discharge. It is significantly worse than it's been in the past three months. I know that if I go back to the vet they are going to put her through the whole trauma that she has already been through just to end up at the same place.....nowhere!
Can anyone shed some light on this for me? I am really at a loss with her. I don't know what to do at this point. Not only is it awful for her, but it is time consuming and expensive for me! Anything thoughts would be much appreciated.
PS
She quite eating about two weeks ago. We've had to change her food and everything. After the change she started eating for about two days. Now she quit eating again entirely. This eating thing occurred about two weeks before the eye flare up. Could they be related? She's never quit eating before. I figured she was just being finicky.