Our 5 year old cat has a serious eye problem and the vet is mystified. Last February,all of our cats except one came down witth a bad virus. They all recovered, but this cat (we call him RiffRaff) was the only one who, when he was sick, developed a very watery eye, and his third eyelid covered most of it. Anyway, they all recovered, he's been fine since then, but he always has blinked a lot and been a little squinty. This past Thursday, his other eye was watery, and the third eyelid was covering it. I thought it might be the virus again, so I gave him some Viralys, which made no difference. The vet said ok to trying antibiotic ointment in the eye, over the weekend, and we did, as well as rinsing with saline, but it made no difference.
We took him to the vet on Monday, who through a series of tests has pretty much ruled out infection, and some kind of syndrome ( I can't remember what he called it) and was unable to find any evidence of cancer cells in the samples he took from the eye. He originally suspected Glaucoma, but now he does not think that is what it is. He also does not think it is viral. He has concluded that it may be a tumor either behind the eye, or in the eye itself, and that the growth of the tumor is causing the eye to be displaced. RiffRaff has been in the hospital for two days while they are treating him with Meloxicam, antibiotics, and some other stuff, most of which I can't remember. He also has some swelling in his face. The vet is reluctant to remove the eye for fear of aggravating the tumor Iif there is one behind the eye) and causing it to grow more quickly. Even though he does not suspect Glaucoma, he suggested that maybe we can try Glaucoma drops for a few days, and continue the Meloxicam, just to see. Otherwise, the only other option he sees is to have a specialist do an MRI and other testing, which, I'm pretty sure, will be extremely costly.
Has anyone experienced anything like this, or have any thoughts? I did read on line that Glaucoma can cause excessive blinking. If he has Glaucoma the future is still pretty scary for him, but at least he won't be facing euthanization in the immediate future, as he is now if we can't figure this out.
Please, anyone?
We took him to the vet on Monday, who through a series of tests has pretty much ruled out infection, and some kind of syndrome ( I can't remember what he called it) and was unable to find any evidence of cancer cells in the samples he took from the eye. He originally suspected Glaucoma, but now he does not think that is what it is. He also does not think it is viral. He has concluded that it may be a tumor either behind the eye, or in the eye itself, and that the growth of the tumor is causing the eye to be displaced. RiffRaff has been in the hospital for two days while they are treating him with Meloxicam, antibiotics, and some other stuff, most of which I can't remember. He also has some swelling in his face. The vet is reluctant to remove the eye for fear of aggravating the tumor Iif there is one behind the eye) and causing it to grow more quickly. Even though he does not suspect Glaucoma, he suggested that maybe we can try Glaucoma drops for a few days, and continue the Meloxicam, just to see. Otherwise, the only other option he sees is to have a specialist do an MRI and other testing, which, I'm pretty sure, will be extremely costly.
Has anyone experienced anything like this, or have any thoughts? I did read on line that Glaucoma can cause excessive blinking. If he has Glaucoma the future is still pretty scary for him, but at least he won't be facing euthanization in the immediate future, as he is now if we can't figure this out.
Please, anyone?
