My kitten has a painful eye infection. Why aren't her drops working?

Hello and thank your for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Superficial corneal ulcers are treated with antibiotics eye drops and oral pain killers. These medications are prescription-only, so you need to take your kitten to your local vets to get them.

First of all, if you didn't take her to your vet you need to do this so the eye can be checked first, it might be an eye injury or eye ulcer, in such a case the treatment will be different. Veterycin is an eye wash, it is not a medical drops and does not treat eye infections, if she has an infection she needs an antibiotic eye drops which you can get from your vet after he checks her eye.

It is hard to say if it will improve with eye drops. the pupil appears dilated also may be a sign of vision loss if there was previous trauma to the eye. She seems very calm with it open and that is a good sign it does not hurt. The best thing to do is see a vet to see if that is a part of the vitreous that healed due to a previous puncture or old penetrating wound, or see if there is something stuck to the eye that needs removal

It looks like your cat has a seriously deep corneal ulcer. I cannot suggest any treatment without examining her myself. This probably needs surgery. All you are doing with the Ciplox is preventing infection - that will not heal this. You need to take her to a vet for an exam. In the meantime, I recommend you use an eye ointment (not a liquid drop) on the eye as it will protect the cornea better. https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/tetracycline-eye-ointment-11084634148.html

Unfortunately, the picture is not clear enough for me to fully see the lesion. However, a diagnosis would require a full ophthalmic exam by a vet, so we would only be able to give educated guesses anyways. Cats with feline herpes virus at a young age can get severe ulcers in the cornea (the outside layer of the eye ball). This, or swelling within the cornea are the common causes of the cloudy appearance. With severe ulcerations, the cornea does not heal perfectly and can have a permanent scar - this could definitely be a reason for the cloudy spot you are describing. However, I would have expected one of the previous vets to have diagnosed this already, so it may be something else. Considering you have been to many veterinarians already and have not received an adequate answer, or potential treatment options (corneal scars can be remedied with minor surgery), I recommend seeking a referral to a veterinary ophthalmologist. They will be able to definitively diagnose the condition and will be the best professional to offer treatment. You can ask your vet about this option and I'm sure they will ensure you get the necessary information and referral. I hope that helps and all is well with Cinder.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I would recommend making sure he does not have an underlying disease that may be predisposing him to these infections. Test him for feline leukemia (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) at your veterinarian's clinic to rule these possible causes out. Some cats will have chronic viral infections their entire life and we just treat these as they come. If you are not giving lysine supplementation and not giving Purine Fortiflora, I would definitely recommend doing so as both of these have been shown to lessen the severity and duration of the herpes virus flare ups. I would also consider an upper respiratory culture to make sure that there are no other bacterial causes that may be resistant to the antibiotics currently being given. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

if you are noticing the eyes are looking worse, I recommend to call the vet asap. It could be an allergic reaction but it could also be a worsening of the viral infection (and the meds have not had enough time to take effect yet). You vet is the best one to advise you in this scenario. I hope Emma starts feeling better quickly and please feel free to post any additional questions.