Need advice on eye ointment for infected/injured eye please!

DBF has a cat that was a stray and now has moved in for the most part. DBF can pick him up, pet him, etc, but no one else can. Tonight he came home with a bad eye. He is squinting and it has some pus in it, and is very red. I don't know if it is just an infection or an injury. It would be very difficult to get him into the vet with his shy personality.

I have some Neopolydex Opthalmic ointment that I had for Justin and wonder if we can use it. The ointment contains neomycin, polymyxin B, Sulfates and Dexamethasone. My question would be is the Dex going to be a problem if there is a scratch or injury to the eye? I vaguely remember no steroids on scratches but it has been such a long time.

Anyone?

 

All I know is that it's no steroid on a corneal ulcer so my guess would be not on a scratch either. Maybe you could get some AB ointment without the dex from the vet in the morning?

 

We may try it and if things get much worse instead of better we will just have to find a way to take him in. Cross your fingers that things look better in the morning and we won't have to decide on the ointment.

 

I'm not sure. But it could be several different things (scratch, puncture, bacterial infection, viral ulceration, etc.), and only the vet is going to be able to tell what the problem is. Normally I would say to think about getting some acepromazine from the vet, and dosing the cat before you take her in. But with ace, the third eyelid may show and that can make it really hard to diagnose eye problems, so ace is not a good solution.

But there is something you could try. As bold and domineering as Mini was, he was always very frightened of strangers and of going to the vet. Luckily I found out that having a towel could really help, so that as soon as he came out of the carrier, Min could hide inside the towel which was folded in half. That way he could completely be covered and he didn't even touch the metal table. Even when the vet had to look at him, she only needed that one part exposed and the rest could stay under the towel. WHen he was carried back for weighing, he was covered by a towel the whole time. (But things did get much better -- with his frequent quickie checkups with Dr C this spring, Min finally grew comfortable enough with her to start peeking from under the towel, then to let Dr C see all of him, and then to actually come out from under the towel and walk around the whole exam room.)

Hopefully the towel trick will work for you as well, both in the short term and in the longer run.

laur

 

I hope it's better in the morning, Patti. So tough to medicate the scared ones

 

I would hold off on the eye med if it has steroids in it. The shelter only has us use that ointment if a kitten's eyes are REALLY bad, and it's added on top of the erythro ointment we're already giving. We only give the steroid ointment for a couple of days, then stop it. That's without any ulcers or scratches though.. just when the URI or herpes makes the eyes swell up & gets infected. They're really careful about using the steroid ointment in their eyes though. No way you can get a simple erythromycin ointment or something with just ABs in it?