I just adopted a 5 month old kitten a week ago. All shots up to date. Feline tests are negative. Yesterday she started squinting one eye and had a. Little "eye booger". She's still squinting the one eye no watery or drainage from eyes or nose. No coughing. No rubbing it. Occasionally sneezing. Anyone have any ideas what could b going on with her eye? Thank you
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Kittens Eye-infection?
- Thread starter skittles12
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She may just have some dust or something in her eye that is irritating it. You can try to rinse her eye with some sterile saline that you can get at most pharmacies. Water can work as well if you don't have saline. It could also be some kind of infection but you normally have some discharge with that.
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Whats the easiest way to get it in her eye?
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You can get an oral syringe and use that to squirt the saline in her eye (not the contact lens kind). Most pharmacies sell oral syringes. Hold the eye open with one hand and squirt the saline or water with the other. Some cats will struggle quite a bit so it may help to have someone help you to hold her.
If it doesn't get better soon she may have an eye infection which requires vet treatment. If that's not an option you can try an antibiotic eye ointment called Terramycin which you can get on Ebay pretty cheaply. They unfortunately discontinued Terramycin for the American market a couple of years ago so now you have to get the European version. It's the same stuff though. It should be put in the eye three times a day for ten days. A vet visit is of course always best.
May I remind you of our rules which forbid the giving of actual medical advice online. We can only state what has worked (or not) for our own cats. Please do not use any antibiotic on a cat without vet approval. If a warm saline solution to clean the eye does not work, then take her to a vet. Squinting is often the first sign of an infection, and any pus coming out confirms it. It is important to get the right antibiotic and only a proper examination can decide. Eyes are precious and not to be messed with.
Yes, I would highly advise against starting antibiotics in the eye (or anywhere else for that matter) in lieu of proper vet care. This could very well be something like ocular Herpes in which case antibiotics won't help at all. Delaying proper anti-viral treatment could hurt your kitten's eyes too if it happens to be herpes.
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As I said it is of course always best to take your cat to the vet to get a proper diagnosis and treatment. However, I also know that many people can't afford it or won't take their cat to the vet for other reasons (many cats never see a vet at all in their lives) and in those cases, or if you have experience with treating conjunctivitis which is very common in rescued cats, I think Terramycin is a very useful product. It is an over the counter ointment intended to treat conjunctivitis and other eye conditions. Since it's OTC it's obviously not required to be used on order by a vet and I don't think it's all that different from using OTC antibiotic skin ointments like Neosporin which I'm sure nobody bats an eye about. We're not talking about oral antibiotics that are systemic and can cause a number of side effects. I've had a lot of success with it with my rescues that have URI related conjunctivitis as well as my cat who has feline herpes that causes reoccuring eye infections (I have never seen a vet prescribe anti-viral drugs for herpes related eye infections). I'm not telling anyone to use it. I'm simply making people aware that the product is out there. For run of the mill conjunctivitis most vets prescribe triple antibiotic eye ointment which, among other things, contain polymyxin, the same as is in Terramycin.
Apparently Terramycin is now back on the American market and can be bought from a number of animal pharmacies. Here is one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...=pla&catargetid=530005150000121364&cadevice=c
Apparently Terramycin is now back on the American market and can be bought from a number of animal pharmacies. Here is one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...=pla&catargetid=530005150000121364&cadevice=c
