My wife noticed around the middle of last week that Chris’s eye looked a little pink. She had some eye medication from another time that Chris or one of our other cats had an eye infection so we put that in Chris’s eye for a couple of days but it didn’t seem to help. I made an appointment for him on Thursday and on Friday afternoon I brought him to the vet.
Our concern was that it was pink eye or something like that and he would spread it to the other cats but the vet didn’t seem to think it was contagious. He asked me if he was scratching his eye, which I hadn’t noticed. It didn’t occur to me until later that maybe the problem was caused by a scratch.
Whatever the issue, he gave us a tube of medicine and we have been putting it in his eye. He hates it when we do that and he also hates it when I put medicine in his ears and now we have to do both. In two days I have not noticed much of an improvement. Hopefully it will get better before we have to leave for West Virginia.
If all goes well, and so far it hasn’t, we will be closing on Wednesday and leaving on Thursday morning.
Also, my computer has been acting up lately and today it won’t start. I tried using my rescue disk but that doesn’t work either so I posted this using my phone. I am not a big fan of working from my phone so I may not be as active for a while but I will try to keep you posted about our move.
When we adopted our kitten, Floki, on the fourth of July, he had a slight problem with his eye. Along with the kitten, we received a tube of ointment that we had to put in his eye several times a day. Not exactly a good start in the bonding process.
Meanwhile, Frankie had a sneezing problem. It’s not a new problem. We brought him to the vet in February and the said it was a respiratory infection and gave him the standard steroids and antibiotics that all vets give for all problems (read about it here). Not long after we brought the kitten home we noticed that he would sneeze once in a while. We weren’t sure if he caught the problem from Frankie or if he already had it.
On Wednesday, maybe Thursday morning, we noticed Frankie seemed to have the same problem with his eye as Flokie did, although by then Flokie was almost better. I called vet that Frankie went to for his Urinary Track Infection but they could not get him in until late Monday. Since I was at work, I texted Rose the information and their phone number but did not hear back from her about it.
By Thursday evening, Frankie’s eye was worse and his sneezing attacks were also more frequent so I left a message with his other vet, the one that didn’t cure his sneezing problem, and was able to get him an appointment at 8:40 on Friday morning.
Since I had to go to work, Rose followed me to the vet, which is very close to our house. We got there around 8:30 and they ushered us into an exam room. Once inside I opened Frankie’s carrier but he was hesitant to come out. I think the sound at the end of the video below is the door opening, which is why the video is so short.
Frankie refused to come out for the vet tech so we had to take the top of the carrier off.
She carried him into the back room to get his weight and conduct super-secret experiments on him before bring him back. He quickly settled back into his carrier where, I suppose, he felt most comfortable.
A few minutes later the vet walked in and Frankie immediately hissed at her. I’m not sure why but maybe he remembered her from his last visit, or it could be she did something to him minutes before behind closed doors.
She mentioned something about his eye infection possibly being from herpes or a few other things I don’t remember. I also heard the word “ulcer.” She put some kind of dye in his eye to better see any scratches, which she did find one.
At that point it was 9:00 and I had to leave for work. When I got home it seemed that Rose didn’t have a clear idea what was wrong with him. Some kind of infection, which we already knew. She said he got a shot of antibiotics (shocking) and antibiotic eye drops as well as pain relieving ointment that we have to put in his eye several times a day.
This morning his eye seemed the same and his sneezing was worse because now there was drops of blood everywhere. Of course, I didn’t expect him to get better overnight.
Here is Frankie after 3 p.m. this afternoon.
I just don’t like that our cats get antibiotics, steroids and who knows what else every time they go to the vet. Those antibiotics have got to wreck havoc on their digestive systems. That is probably why Frankie is so susceptible to illness. They solve a problem in the short term but create long term health issues.
Chris is our oldest and fattest cat and has never been to the vet for a health related issue (knock on wood). He has been vaccinated a couple of times because it was mandatory for residence in a couple of places that we moved in to, but he never received an antibiotic, steroid, or anything else for that matter. Hmmm… I wonder why Chris is not sneezing?
I like and respect veterinarians and I think sometimes their services are invaluable, but other times I wonder why I keep going. What do you think? Am I being unfair to vets?
Bad Cat Chris 