- Joined
- Nov 5, 2021
- Messages
- 86
- Purraise
- 164
Hello, everyone.
Yesterday morning my Oscar - who some of you know has had some other major health things going on for a while - woke me up like he normally does for breakfast. A little while after his morning meds and meal, I noticed he suddenly looked weak, was trembling, was not purring or wanting to move much, and generally looked very suddenly not good. My wife and I put him in a warmer spot of the apartment and he slept for a bit. We had no idea if he was just cold, having a sudden issue related to one of his illnesses, or something entirely else. I sat with him for a few hours watching him closely and he eventually got up and started walking around and eating like normal, but it was at this time that I noticed he had yellowy goo coming out of the corners of both eyes. I ended up NOT taking him to the emergency vet for two reasons - 1, once he started getting up and eating, he started acting way more normal again. Trembling stopped, he purred, he ate more, he enjoyed the balcony. He looked a little under the weather but was better than during the sudden morning dip and seemed stable at this level for the rest of the day. 2, Oscar does very poorly with traveling. Riding in cars makes him feel horrible and visiting vet offices can take him days to recover from (I swear he's gotten sick the last three times we've taken him somewhere), so I was trying to avoid taking him to an emergency vet he's never been to half an hour away. Since he seemed to stabilize a bit, we got through yesterday.
He tends to have clear water eyes now and then, so I found some erythromycin we had lying around for him. It's still within date and my wife and I put a line on each eye last night and this morning.
Naturally this is happening on Memorial Day weekend, which means both his normal general vet and the specialist vet he visits for internal medicine were closed yesterday and are today as well. My only options are to take him to the ER vet we've never met 30 minutes away later today, or wait it out and take him to his normal vet tomorrow morning (assuming they'll see him... I hope... they are literally only a 10 minute drive, so at least they're much closer and have his history).
Today he's eating, had his meds, and is walking around normally (and woke me in the night as he usually does). He's sitting upright and mostly seems okay. there is no sneezing or coughing, and his breathing has remained at a normal rate. But he's now squinting a LOT. He's clearly uncomfortable in his eyes, really wanting to keep them closed. That said, I'm noticing less goo. For the most part they look normal. They don't appear red. Maybe slightly puffy but I really can't tell. His face is otherwise not too pain-stricken. It seems obvious that he's just dealing with some sort of herpes flare or something, a sudden eye infection of some kind. Other than obviously not wanting him to be miserable, I am concerned about whether or not I should consider this urgent since he is on chemo and steroids and likely has a weaker immune system. His last dosage of chemo was last Thursday.
I called the emergency vet to ask their opinion on whether or not this was emergent. After saying she'd offer her opinion, the woman listened to my whole diatribe on what was going on and then would only say, "It's up to you!" followed by a rehearsed speech on their pricing. Which was completely unhelpful and very frustrating.
I guess I am wondering this - would you consider this an emergency and get him in somewhere today? Could it wait until a phone call to a vet who knows him tomorrow morning? I'm guessing that whoever sees him will just prescribe oral antibiotics. How often should I apply the erythromycin while we do wait to speak to a real vet?
Thanks for any insight. You guys are awesome, as always.
Yesterday morning my Oscar - who some of you know has had some other major health things going on for a while - woke me up like he normally does for breakfast. A little while after his morning meds and meal, I noticed he suddenly looked weak, was trembling, was not purring or wanting to move much, and generally looked very suddenly not good. My wife and I put him in a warmer spot of the apartment and he slept for a bit. We had no idea if he was just cold, having a sudden issue related to one of his illnesses, or something entirely else. I sat with him for a few hours watching him closely and he eventually got up and started walking around and eating like normal, but it was at this time that I noticed he had yellowy goo coming out of the corners of both eyes. I ended up NOT taking him to the emergency vet for two reasons - 1, once he started getting up and eating, he started acting way more normal again. Trembling stopped, he purred, he ate more, he enjoyed the balcony. He looked a little under the weather but was better than during the sudden morning dip and seemed stable at this level for the rest of the day. 2, Oscar does very poorly with traveling. Riding in cars makes him feel horrible and visiting vet offices can take him days to recover from (I swear he's gotten sick the last three times we've taken him somewhere), so I was trying to avoid taking him to an emergency vet he's never been to half an hour away. Since he seemed to stabilize a bit, we got through yesterday.
He tends to have clear water eyes now and then, so I found some erythromycin we had lying around for him. It's still within date and my wife and I put a line on each eye last night and this morning.
Naturally this is happening on Memorial Day weekend, which means both his normal general vet and the specialist vet he visits for internal medicine were closed yesterday and are today as well. My only options are to take him to the ER vet we've never met 30 minutes away later today, or wait it out and take him to his normal vet tomorrow morning (assuming they'll see him... I hope... they are literally only a 10 minute drive, so at least they're much closer and have his history).
Today he's eating, had his meds, and is walking around normally (and woke me in the night as he usually does). He's sitting upright and mostly seems okay. there is no sneezing or coughing, and his breathing has remained at a normal rate. But he's now squinting a LOT. He's clearly uncomfortable in his eyes, really wanting to keep them closed. That said, I'm noticing less goo. For the most part they look normal. They don't appear red. Maybe slightly puffy but I really can't tell. His face is otherwise not too pain-stricken. It seems obvious that he's just dealing with some sort of herpes flare or something, a sudden eye infection of some kind. Other than obviously not wanting him to be miserable, I am concerned about whether or not I should consider this urgent since he is on chemo and steroids and likely has a weaker immune system. His last dosage of chemo was last Thursday.
I called the emergency vet to ask their opinion on whether or not this was emergent. After saying she'd offer her opinion, the woman listened to my whole diatribe on what was going on and then would only say, "It's up to you!" followed by a rehearsed speech on their pricing. Which was completely unhelpful and very frustrating.
I guess I am wondering this - would you consider this an emergency and get him in somewhere today? Could it wait until a phone call to a vet who knows him tomorrow morning? I'm guessing that whoever sees him will just prescribe oral antibiotics. How often should I apply the erythromycin while we do wait to speak to a real vet?
Thanks for any insight. You guys are awesome, as always.
