Kitty's eye is weird about 12 hours after spaying surgery

[PandorasPaw]

Hi,

My 1 and a half year old female kitty Pandora was spayed at a shelter yesterday. Her eye was fine when I first arrived home and for the hours afterwards while I was watching her.

I went to bed and woke up just now, and it has been roughly 12-13 hours since her surgery. Upon inspecting her I see that her eye is now looking weird. It looks like this. It may not look like much in the photo, but when fully opened, it appeared "foggy" and was not looking straight. Almost like a lazy eye. I did read that glassy eyes after surgery is normal, but only in the first couple of hours. This only happened 12 hours after.

 

[di and bob]

I have had cats that do that after surgery, it is from the anesthetic. Time usually resolves the problem but it could take days. 12 hours later is usually when they really come out of teh anesthesia and the pain meds. i would send that picture to teh vet so he knows. She could have picked up a little kitty cold at the vet too, but that is fast for that to appear.

 

[PandorasPaw]

I have had cats that do that after surgery, it is from the anesthetic. Time usually resolves the problem but it could take days. 12 hours later is usually when they really come out of teh anesthesia and the pain meds. i would send that picture to teh vet so he knows. She could have picked up a little kitty cold at the vet too, but that is fast for that to appear.

Thank you very much for the reply!

It is a relief to know you have experienced something similar - this is my first time having a kitty spayed, and I'm new to all of it. I don't yet have a regular vet (shortly after adopting my girl Pandora, some unfortunate circumstances happened that left me nearly homeless and I am still in the process of trying to recover financially. I was never able to really establish her at a vet because of cost); do you think it would be acceptable to contact the vet at the shelter? They told me to contact my regular vet if I had problems, but I don't have one...

Hopefully she is just still groggy. I will give it about 24-48 hours before I start panicking for real...

Thanks again!

 

[PandorasPaw]

She keeps going back and forth from opening it completely and looking fairly normal, to squinting it like it's irritated. This was her earlier, then she was fine for a bit, and this is her just now.

This is a video of her rubbing/"scratching" her eye. Unmute the video and note the strange sound it makes when she's rubbing it, you can hear me in the video telling her to stop because it sounded like she was trying to scratch her eye out! It kinda freaked me out.

Is this normal?

 

[fionasmom]

Contact the vet at the shelter. They should at least be willing to have a conversation about this, maybe over the phone if they will accept the pics and video. It looks like there is at least some mild irritation to me.

 

[di and bob]

Yes, the shelter vet should help you if you tell them you don’t have a regular vet. She may have scratched it while coming out from anesthesia. She may need some salve. If you need help with applying it or anything at all ask us!

 

[di and bob]

She’s cleaning her eye in that video, It may be scratched or irritated. Or it could be a slight reaction to the anesthesia. Either way she may need ointment for a few days. The best thing to do really is to show those videos to the vet who spayed her. I pray everything goes well for her!

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. You need to prevent her from scratching or rubbing that eye. She can create a corneal ulcer by doing so.

The anesthesia does not cause this directly. But, an anesthetic procedure can indirectly cause it. Animals don’t blink when they are anesthetized. Therefore, a sterile eye lube is put in the eyes when they are under anesthesia. If this is skipped, they eyes can dry out and get irritated or get an ulcer that way.

I have also read in some of the vet forums that often low cost mass produced spay and neuter clinics will use mineral oil instead, and the lack of sterility could cause an infection.

Regardless of the cause, if the eye is not normal now, she needs to have her eye examined s as bd get fitted for an e collar to prevent self trauma to the eye.

 

[fionasmom]

Animals don’t blink when they are anesthetized. Therefore, a sterile eye lube is put in the eyes when they are under anesthesia. If this is skipped, they eyes can dry out and get irritated or get an ulcer that way.

Neither do people and this happened to me once during a procedure; I needed an eye doctor the next day. I only mention this as it might be a logical possibility for your cat.

 

[LivnDedCatLady]

If your cat or maybe one at the vet has the feline herpes virus getting something like a surgery would lower its immune system and cause this virus to flare up. Sometimes they have had it yet never shown symptoms bc their immune system has never really taken a hit. Think of it like a cold sore or a kind of autoimmune disorder. They always have the chance of a flare up but as long as their immune system is functioning at full strength they don’t show symptoms, something like a surgery is def going to trigger their immune system. Regardless I would definitely recommend contacting the vet and I would also pick up some l lysine supplements to boost her immune system for the time being. I have fhv positive cats and aside from the occasional kitty cold with watery eyes and a little sneezing they live completely normal lives. I give them supplements and symptoms usually stop shortly after a few days on them. It’s very important to make sure it doesn’t worsen though bc it can cause respiratory infections if it worsens and worsens without intervention. If you’ve ever seen feral cat colonies this is something you may have already noticed but at an advanced stage with conjunctivitis and completely shut eyes due to it like when humans have pink eye. I have one cat who just gets the glassy watery eyes for a few days then she’s over it. If the drainage from the eyes or nose starts to get cloudy or green take her to the vet right away the earlier the better. But the lining in the corner of the eye may be what you’re noticing right now as it does tend to get a little inflamed making it more noticeable. I think of it like an inner eyelid but honestly I don’t know what exactly it is but all my cats have it and it is noticeable more during times they have a flare up.

 

[PandorasPaw]

Contact the vet at the shelter. They should at least be willing to have a conversation about this, maybe over the phone if they will accept the pics and video. It looks like there is at least some mild irritation to me.

Thank goodness, the next day after I wrote this post her eye returned to normal and hasn't squinted since. I did take her to a vet for something else, but they had no concerns about her eye. Phew!

Thanks for replying!

 

[fionasmom]

Thank you for letting us know!