Poorly chicken

[Lydia]

Does anyone have any insight into eye trouble in cats, please?

 

Dexter is about 6 and has lived with us for a year. He's a 5.8kg enormous lump of long haired muscle with a very gentle nature. However, he does suffer with his eyes and they irritate him every so often. It's intermittent and affects one or both eyes randomly. When inflamed, his eyes weep, go red and he rubs them. This has happened ever since he came to live with us. It may have happened before then but we don't really know his history, although we strongly suspect he was an indoor cat before.

 

The eye problem seemed to occur less in the colder months. Now that we've hit a bit of spring weather, it's more frequent. Generally the problem goes away overnight (all our cats are locked in overnight) and neither of our other two cats have ever been affected.

 

We suspected an allergy, something like hay fever, but our vet said that cats don't really get allergies and it's more likely to be viral. Dexter has been examined by two vets who can find nothing specific.

 

It clearly annoys him and we'd like to sort it, but it may be 'one of those things'. Any insight gratefully received.

 

Other things you might want to know: he's 6, he's neutered, we feed him raw food (Honeys, mostly, with other raw bits occasionally thrown in). He will hunt but he's not prolific. If he catches something he'll eat it entirely. He is wormed and de-fleaed regularly with Advocate.

[mollyripkim]

I had an a cat who when we moved to this property started having similar problem, vet couldn't find anything wrong. Anyway after 18 months here we cut down two big conifer trees and her problem went away. She used to like sitting in the tree watching the birds in next doors aviary.

[Chucky Mama]

Have you been to a vet regarding this?

[Lydia]

Yes, two. One could find nothing much wrong. The other, which was last week, found some redness and said that cats don't get allergies and it was probably viral. He offered antibiotics but wasn't sure if they'd work so we didn't get them.

 

Neither of my other cats are affected and they've lived here 17 years.

[Chucky Mama]

Have they mentioned calicvirus?

[Cat tails]

You can't do allergy testing on cats (no reliable test around).

But if it is viral, then antibiotics aren't going to help. Then it will need to clear up by itself.

 

My cat is always very itchy and mostlikely has some allergy, but haven't found out what. She is not too bothered by it. If it doesn't go away, you could ask for some eye cream to sooth the itching.

[Lydia]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

 

The vet didn't mention Calicivirus but I Googled it. He doesn't get the other symptoms described, he's not fluey or congested and I've not seen any mouth ulcers. He's certainly not reluctant to eat! . He seems a bouncy, healthy boy except that he sometimes goes around with one eye closed.

 

It's hard not knowing much of his history. With the other two I know exactly what they've had. It's not something I anticipated being a problem when we adopted him.

[Daphne]

I'm not sure if this is helpful but I dimly remember one of our cats having some sort of hay-fever/conjunctivitis type issue years ago, but I can't remember what was done about it. I have some vague recollection of a treatment - I am sure we went to the vet, but I don't remember the diagnosis or the medication thereafter. I have a mental picture of a cat with an eye shut, but my memory is not telling me which of the puss cats it was! I'll ask OH when he gets home, if we had to administer something he would have done it and will remember better than me.