Hi everyone!
I posted earlier about a chronic diarrhea episode with my cat. Not to jinx things but things seem to be getting a little better in that department, but there's an unresolved issue I've had with her respiratory condition and eyes and I haven't been able to figure things out with her doctors.
Here are the photos:
The first set is how she usually looks and the second set is how they've been looking lately. Usually she has defined, thick black 'cat eyeliner" that goes down to her tear duct area. Now that area seems a little red/irritated and she's been having clear discharge that dries down as brown, more noticeably in her left eye. She also will sneeze occasionally and seems like she could be congested at times. Also has been known to have wheezing fits but not super often.
Now, she just had an ultrasound and has been at the vet a few times in the past 2 months because of her diarrhea and in their notes, they didn't notice any issues with her lungs on her physical assessment and didn't think her eyes looked bad.
I had actually brought her to the vet in May of this year specifically for the sneezing and eye discharge. They did a fluorescent stain to make sure nothing was injured and that came back fine. The doctor prescribed Erythromycin, which didn't seem to do much. I didn't get to give the full dose of it due to needing to fly back to my apartment (this is my parents cat primarily but I tend to notice anything health related when I'm around).
In summer of 2021, she actually had a worse eye situation where we could see her third eyelid and when I brought her into the vet, they prescribed Terramycin and Idoxuridine. Those meds actually worked well and her eyes looked pretty good after treatment. This was a different vet and she said it's most likely a herpesvirus flareup but we didn't officially test for it. Her eyes right now don't look as bad as they did then but I'm worried it could get to that point.
In terms of things I'm doing, before the diarrhea I occasionally gave some lysine powder in her wet food but didn't give it consistently. I'm going to try adding a spoonful every night as long as it doesn't seem to upset her stomach. We're trying to transition her to a lower dust litter, and I also got an air purifier in case it's air quality or allergies related.
I asked my vet once again for some thoughts on her eyes and sent over these photos in case my verbal descriptions of what I think is going on isn't helping. He's out of office til Wednesday so I'm just wondering if anyone else has thoughts on what could be going on. I'm also going to send the photos to her vet from 2021 for a second opinion. I also understand it could just be age affecting her eyes (she's somewhere around 11-12 years old) but since she does have slight respiratory symptoms, I don't feel confident in that answer!
Thanks in advance
I posted earlier about a chronic diarrhea episode with my cat. Not to jinx things but things seem to be getting a little better in that department, but there's an unresolved issue I've had with her respiratory condition and eyes and I haven't been able to figure things out with her doctors.
Here are the photos:
The first set is how she usually looks and the second set is how they've been looking lately. Usually she has defined, thick black 'cat eyeliner" that goes down to her tear duct area. Now that area seems a little red/irritated and she's been having clear discharge that dries down as brown, more noticeably in her left eye. She also will sneeze occasionally and seems like she could be congested at times. Also has been known to have wheezing fits but not super often.
Now, she just had an ultrasound and has been at the vet a few times in the past 2 months because of her diarrhea and in their notes, they didn't notice any issues with her lungs on her physical assessment and didn't think her eyes looked bad.
I had actually brought her to the vet in May of this year specifically for the sneezing and eye discharge. They did a fluorescent stain to make sure nothing was injured and that came back fine. The doctor prescribed Erythromycin, which didn't seem to do much. I didn't get to give the full dose of it due to needing to fly back to my apartment (this is my parents cat primarily but I tend to notice anything health related when I'm around).
In summer of 2021, she actually had a worse eye situation where we could see her third eyelid and when I brought her into the vet, they prescribed Terramycin and Idoxuridine. Those meds actually worked well and her eyes looked pretty good after treatment. This was a different vet and she said it's most likely a herpesvirus flareup but we didn't officially test for it. Her eyes right now don't look as bad as they did then but I'm worried it could get to that point.
In terms of things I'm doing, before the diarrhea I occasionally gave some lysine powder in her wet food but didn't give it consistently. I'm going to try adding a spoonful every night as long as it doesn't seem to upset her stomach. We're trying to transition her to a lower dust litter, and I also got an air purifier in case it's air quality or allergies related.
I asked my vet once again for some thoughts on her eyes and sent over these photos in case my verbal descriptions of what I think is going on isn't helping. He's out of office til Wednesday so I'm just wondering if anyone else has thoughts on what could be going on. I'm also going to send the photos to her vet from 2021 for a second opinion. I also understand it could just be age affecting her eyes (she's somewhere around 11-12 years old) but since she does have slight respiratory symptoms, I don't feel confident in that answer!
Thanks in advance
