Red Eye and Infected Third Eyelid in My Cat

Sometimes everything happens at once, and one wonders whether there is some common cause underneath it all.  What happened here was that Betty, the Alpha Cat of my Household suddenly just died, probably of a heart seizure.   Well, the next day Rory, a Yearling Neutered Male, looked at me with a bit of a squint, and I should have paid more attention.   But he was not my only problem.  Foxxy, my Alpha Male 10 year old, was behaving strangely… going from sleeping place to sleeping place, apparently not finding comfort anywhere.   His ear had been drooping, but he had often used it as a mannerism (he is part Siamese, and they have all sorts of mannerisms and strange vocalizations that other cats would never even imagine doing), but when I finally decided to examine him explicitly, well, his ear was a complete bag of blood – a hematoma – “pillow ear” as some people refer to it.  So Foxxy went to the Veterinary Clinic (see my Blog about that, if you like). 

 

The next time I circled back home, well, Rory’s eye was a lot worse.  It was now decidedly red and the Third Eyelid was almost a third of the way up, almost blocking Rory’s vision.   There are places on line to read about the Third Eyelid of a cat, but I can give it to you in short – the 3^rd Eye Lid is like a passive spring, so that if the Eye is pulled back by a muscle behind the Eye, the 3^rd Eyelid automatically just pops up covering the Eye.   Cats need this because they get into fights a lot… if a Cat or some other Animal attacks them by going at their Face, then right before contact, a Reflex will pull their Eye back, and the 3^rd Lid will pop up and prevent them from being blinded. 

 

But, apparently, what happened here was that the eye had gotten infected, and that infection somehow affected that muscle behind the eye, causing it to contract, or the actual eye got smaller, causing the 3^rd Lid to start creeping up over the smaller eye.  

 

I thought it was probably a bacterial infection, and so I got some Triple Anti-Biotic Ointment (Neosporin), tested it by rubbing it into my own eye (no sting), and rubbed it in Rory’s.    Well, for a few days his eye got no worse, but not getting any better, I discontinued the Anti-Biotic Ointment.   That was a mistake.  The Time Line here was that Saturday evening Betty had died, I saw the ‘squint’ on Sunday Morning, the inflamed eye and rising 3^rd Lid on Monday.  I stopped treatment on Wednesday, and then by Friday morning Rory’s eye was very red, closed shut, and when you would pry the eye open, the 3^rd Lid completely covered his eye, and everything was red and inflamed, with a bit of puss seepage.   It all looked very very bad.   Well, I glopped on some more Neosporin as a last resort and then I had to go to work.

 

Yes, I should have taken Rory to the Vet, but we are still in what they call the Great Recession now, and Foxxy was taking up all of our discretionary income.  But this was serious, and I found myself planning to take Rory to the Vet and find out what the options were.  And if the Doctor would have suggested too many expensive Tests and too many possible treatment plans, all of them expensive, or the possibility that Rory would be blind in one eye… well, I am ashamed of it, but putting  Rory ‘to sleep’ was a possibility on my mental list of alternatives…. God have mercy on my soul.   But, thank the Good Lord, when I got home from work that Friday evening, Rory was at the door to greet me, and his Eye was open and the 3^rd Lid a great deal retracted.   The Neosporin had worked.   Rory would not have to die.

 

Now, my Veterinary Doctor says that Neosporin is not for the eyes.   But it does seem to work.  And the good thing about Neosporin, or any generic Triple Anti-biotic Ointment, is that the cats don’t mind it.   Rory was actually holding still and seemed to welcome my rubbing the Ointment into his eyelids.

 

Oh, and remember what they say about Anti-Biotics… that there must be a ‘Course’ of  treatment… 10 days or something.  Anyway, don’t do what I did and stop halfway through… keep administering the Treatment until the eye is better.

 

Now, Rory is back to being Perfect.  This morning he jumped on me to wake me up (yes, after 8 hours sleep they are allowed to at least try to wake me up) and both of his eyes were so open, wide and bright… no one could have guessed which eye had been the sick one.

 

All that aside, though, if money is no problem for you, and you have the time to take your Kitty to the Veterinary Clinic, and you notice even just a slight squint with just a hint of redness, well, don’t lose any time getting Kitty to the Vet… that Red Eye Third Lid Inflammation Thing gets BAD in a real quick hurry.   If I had gotten to Rory sooner, maybe it all would not have had to become quite so dramatic.