Eye Infections

[Savas]

I'm putting this here for anyone who does a search on eye infections for their cats:

Most eye infections occur suddenly, ulcerate quickly, and can lead to blindness eventually. This can happen over as little as two to three days.

Kittens are especially susceptible to this. Especially strays, which tend to have kitty leukimia or kitty "aids".

For those who can't afford an emergency vet visit;

The medication (antibiotic) they give cats with infections is the same as amoxicillin for children. The exact same. It's a pink liquid, but my wife and I have often taken a 500 milligram tablet (adult prescription) and "shaved" a tiny bit off, giving it to the cat. The idea is a 10 to 20 milligram dose. It works great. So...if you've got antibiotic laying around...it's a quick way to fix up your cat in an emergency. I've even gone to the dentist to get a few pills, lied and complained of tooth pain/infection to get it. I'm not telling you what to do, or not do, but if you think in advance, your cat will never need to worry about blindness.

BUT, I won't speak for other antibiotics. We only do this with amoxicillin. We keep a supply around handy just in case (1-2 pills, basically!).

However, there is an eye ointment which you can only get at the vet. MOST vets will allow you to buy it, it's only 10-20 dollars. They won't give you the antibiotic without a visit, but that, they may do. You SHOULD get it, but the cat can get better without it. But the chances are better if you get it.

[Savas]

Thanks, I suppose I should have specified that. The nice thing about the amoxicillin 500 tab's is you scrape off a pin head, put it on your fingertip, and then rub it on the cat's gums. Easy way to dose them! But for liquids, I use the feeding syringes. With med's, we keep it to a quarter syringe at a time, since you don't want them to choke on it!

I've seen a cat go from healthy to blind from infected/ulcerated eyes in like three days...so anyone reading this, make sure you jump on the problem RIGHT away!!!

[CindyP50]

Saves thanks soooo much I’m doing this NOW!!!

[Soror]

I'd like to support what Savas is saying about amoxicillin - it is the same thing that pediatricians use for small children.  (Not-so-affectionately called 'the pink stuff'.)  The only difference between amoxicillin tablets and the liquid form is that the liquid is a suspension of the ground-up tablet in liquid or syrup.  (Something you can easily do yourself with the liquid in wet food or tuna cans.)

Only slightly related:  It is far easier to grind up a tablet and feed it to them in a gobbet of wet food than it is to hold your cat still and use a syringe to feed the liquid to them.  Just a suggestion.

[Savas]

Yeah, it's like with people that way. We try to avoid using the antibiotics for regular infections unless they start getting bad (resistance buildup and all that). With eyes, though, we don't like to play around. We've had a number of one eyed cats because of this problem come through here.

We had one who lost both eyes (named Betty Boop), had to have them removed at 4 months. She wa a sweet thing, and adapted admirably. She went to a "special kitty needs" home, set up for disabled cats (we got VERY lucky, almost never has free space). I still feel terrible about that one, it happened in just two days, and we were slow to catch it that time.

Unfortunately sick cats tend to hide, which means they're probably a day or two at least into the illness if you don't notice right away.

[lane0507]

Just to let you know that is a good cure for cats with Upper Respitory Infection that have an eye infection...( if the cats sneezing and such..) but if you cat is not it wont do anything if its such as a scratch....