Cat Eye Problems

padimus

Our young cat is constantly having a problem with his eyes. Apparently his mum had cat flu which pregnant so he has the symptoms of inflamation and a discharge of green gunk. The vet gave us drops and it cleared up a little for a while but the problem returns after a few days. The vet told us to expect this and to clean the eyes as we need to. Does anyone have any ideas on how to alleviate this? I know using camomile works for people but would it work for cats?

Ado86

Sounds like your cat has a viral infection which is recurrent in his/her eyes, there is nothing that can be done to cure these infections once infected, the kitten was infected while in the mothers uterus. The viral infection would more likely have a watery/clear discharge - when it becomes green this means there is a secondary bacterial infection and you will need a topical antibiotic for the eye.
The main way to prevent a secondary infection is to clean the cats eyes with damp cotton wool at least once a day, or as often as you see a discharge.
I would advise against using camomile on the eye, there may be some ingredients which may be irritant to the eye. Your best bet is just to use damp cotton wool, if you really want to you could use a very very dilute salt solution, but be warned this will sting and the cat will resent it!

The Sweeper

Don't use cotton wool, or if you have nothing else, be very careful with it - it can leave fibres behind in the eye which will can cause irritation and, in extreme cases, infection. You can buy lint-free gauze pads in the chemist, the kind that you'd normally use to clean people's wounds. They're cheap - use those to clean the eye instead. (Alternatively if you have some cloth with minimal lint - like the sort you polish glasses with - try boil washing that and then cutting it into little pieces that remain useful for all wound cleaning and eye swabbing when boiled after each use.)

To reduce the incidence of viral flare-ups, try supplementing the cat's food with L-lysine amino acid. You can buy it at health food stores - it's recommended for people who have cold sores. When purchasing, ensure you get a capsule or table that is pure L-lysine, with no secondary ingredients (e.g. you don't need 'L-lysine with vit B-12'.)

Supplement kitty's food with the powdered L-lysine - either take the caplet apart, or crush the tablet into a powder, then measure out what you need and add it to the food. Try a dose of 250mgs per day. The tablets and capsules you can buy for people are often 500mg in measurement, but again read the packaging.

I have had considerable success using L-lysine to treat recurring herpes-related infections in my cats, with symptoms including running eyes, sneezes, running noses and upper respiratory tract infections. A cat's physiology is heavily reliant on amino acids that they would usually get from their natural diet of small animals - taurine is probably the best known of these, but there is also arginine and other amino acids.

The simple explanation is that L-lysine inhibits arginine, and arginine fuels virus replication, QED a supplementary dose of L-lysine can help to clear up viral infections in the cat.

At the time I used L-lysine, my cats came from the rescue centre with all the symptoms I described, and they passed the infection back and forth like an unwanted Christmas present. I was using repeated doses of Vibravet paste, as prescribed by the vet, but as soon as it cleared up in one cat it would start in one of the others. The cats were all around eight months old. I stopped the Vibravet paste and started supplementing their food with L-lysine at a dose of around 750mg between three cats in each of their wet meals, so some days once a day, some days twice a day. (The L-lysine dosing was a suggestion of the vet, though even she was unsure of the dosing, because this is not a heavily researched supplement, even though it works. General consensus states between 250 and 500mg per cat per day seems the way to go.) I continued this dose for around four weeks, then reduced it to 500mg between the three once a day for another two weeks, then cut it out. I haven't had a relapse of the herpes symptoms in the cats since then.

Do not continue long-term heavy dosing of L-lysine as a preventative measure, as the arginine inhibition it causes can impact the cat's ability to process dietary proteins. If you're going to do something stressful that will affect the cat - e.g. move house, or have it neutered, or start a building renovation - start supplementing the cat's diet with L-lysine a week before the traumatic event, and continue to supplement through the event.

(Interestingly, I have noticed some top quality catfoods - including Royal Canin - have started to include L-lysine in their cat food recipes, the same way they would normally include taurine...)