Runny eye

[paul n steve]

My cat Paul has one eye today that is runny and looks like he has been crying (out of his right eye) It looks like normal eye boogers, goober gathers in the corner along with a little runny tears. just more today than usual. I use warm water and soft toilet paper to gently wipe it off. Is it something more serious, it comes and goes with him. 

I think when he and Steve play together sometimes Steve can claw his eye or near his eye by accident, I keep their nails trimmed well for this reason

 

[silverpersian]

Does he sneeze often? The runny eye sounds familiar. My vet suspects feline herpes and we have kitty on lysine and very occasionally, azithromycin.

In our case, it was the on-and-off runny eye and sneezing, until we went on a two-day trip. We came back to find him with a cloudy eye that REALLY scared me. It cleared up within a couple of days with the azithromycin. The same thing happened the next time I traveled. The herpes theory seems to make sense, as stress is definitely an aggravating factor. I am mentioning the cloudy eye in hopes that you won't be as terrified as I was if you see it - it looks a lot worse than it is.

 

[paul n steve]

Thanks for the information! Thats the thing- he doesn't sneeze, or hasn't.I did read up on the internet after googling "cat has a watery eye" and got a lot of info. Luckily it just started this morning so I can keep track of it. All I want is to go home and check on my baby and wipe his eye 

lol, thankful to have a job, but sometimes I'd much rather be at home with my kitties!!!

 

[ldg]

While a trip to the vet never hurts to confirm these things, if the discharge is watery, not yellow or green goopy, it's most likely herpes, not bacterial. While 500mg of lysine 2x a day may help, especially when it comes to the watery eyes, the addition of bovine lactoferrin (or sometimes bovine lactoferrin alone) seems to either clear it up or help quite a bit: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/267703/stubborn-herpes-infection-add-lactoferrin-in-addition-to-lysine

 

[miraramsay2012]

Lysine is a wonderful idea. If you notice any green or yellow boogers, you might need to get antibiotics from the vet - but just a watery eye can usually be treated at home. I used to foster cats, and had one with watery eyes. I gave her Lysine and also used sterile Saline rinse to rinse out any bacteria from forming (it's in a bottle in any store, made for cleaning contacts). I also had one who came to me with a watery eye, and off-center pupil (like he was looking to the side). I can only guess what happened, but I think one of his littermates scratched him. I was terrified, but it centered back out by the end of the day. 

 

[cprcheetah]

My cat DeeJay has Feline Herpes she gets watery eyes.  She is on Lysine and Lactoferrin.  If you notice color in the discharge it's time to see a vet.

 

[paul n steve]

I've got good news! When I got home from work at 9pm his eye wasn't watery anymore. It's fine now- Thank goodness