Cat sneezing and sore eye

donna 182

Hey everyone. Hope its okay to post this here, i'm just looking for some general advice. I'm not working at the minute and don't want to spend €40+ going to the vet if this is something that will go away on its own.

My cats left eye started leaking fluid about 3/4 days ago. At first I didn't pay any attention and thought it was just the normal fluid that shows up after he has a long sleep..but since yesterday morning he has been sneezing a lot. Every 30 mins or so (sometimes sooner) he will go into fits of sneezing & let out about 5+ sneezes.
He wasn't really eating/drinking much yesterday but I managed to get him to eat a whole bowl of cat food this morning and drink quite a bit of his whiskas cat milk (wouldn't drink the water but any fluids is better than none!) He also slept a lot more than usual yesterday. He was out in his cat house sleeping from 7.30pm-10pm, then I brought him in to my room and he slept there until he woke me up about 4.30am. Usually he will stay up all evening until 11pm then come in my room and nap until 4am.

I never had a cat until this guy (who is clearly lost, not a feral cat) came to our house a few months ago, and I have been taking care of him since then. I have had to bring him to the vet 3 times and between that, buying him an outdoors house, food, scratching post, etc. its costing me a fortune!

He was last at the vet exactly a week before his eye started to get sore, and they gave him 2 shots - a steroid and antibiotic which they said would continue to work for a few days. These were to treat an infection/possible allergic reaction in a cut on his neck. I'm wondering is this a reaction to those shots or something like a cat cold that will disappear on its own? I really can't afford to bring him to the vet again but I don't want him to get worse either.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

SillyMangoX

Sounds like it could be the beginning of a cat flu, is he vaccinated? If he is, it may go away on it's own but I wouldn't leave it much longer, maybe till Tuesday and if he's not better then head to the vets for an antibiotic. In the meantime you could treat the eye using a cool wet tea bag (will stain if the fur is white!) and heat up any wet food to bring out the smell. Cats won't eat if they can't smell so make it as smelly as possible if his nose is stuffy by heating it and maybe add a small bit of sardines or tuna into it. Also if you add water to his food it will help with fluid intake! But if it isn't clearing up by Tuesday at a maximum then I would get him looked at, maybe your vet could work out a payment plan if money is an issue, but if you leave it too long the eye could become very damaged, I've seen some poor kitty's needing an eye removed after a very bad flu. Hope kitty feels better soon!

donna 182

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't been able to get him vaccinated yet, I was trying to save for that & to get him neutered. I don't think hes a feral, so theres a chance whoever owned him in the past had him vaccinated, but i'm not sure.

Thanks for the tip re his food - he ate a huge bowl of (very smelly) turkey & gravy earlier, but wouldn't touch the dried food or chicken/jelly (not a strong smell) will keep giving him the ones that smell stronger!

I feel really guilty that I can't bring him to the vet straight away but I haven't had a pet (although I desperately wanted one) in the last few years because I couldn't afford it... but I couldn't just stand by and not feed him or give him a pet either when he showed up at my doorstep!

Fingers crossed it will clear up over the weekend

Pumpkinseeds

If he's not drinking much you could try to sneak a little bit of water into the wet food. One of my cats isn't great at drinking and that's the easiest way of getting it into him. I'd take him to the vet as soon as you can, I know it's not cheap, we seem to be living at our vets lately:), but cat flu is horrible. I hope he's feeling better soon.