Tea as eye drops?

[gardenandcats]

My cats have been having a ongoing viral thing going on since mid July. My next to the newest kitten Lilly brought it into the house. Its not herpes. Symptoms are sneezing and red rimed eyes with alot of discharge at first. They have all been on long courses of antibiotics.Plus eye ointment. They are much better now. But two still keep having redish eyes and a slight discharge. I'm also giving them all Lysine daily.
My vet has suggested using a very weak tea solution 1 drop per eye 3x a day. he claims tea has anti viral properties and would also be soothing to the eyes. He wants me to try this for a couple of weeks. And after trying the tea if it doesn't help. he will try a anti viral prescription eye ointment. he would prefer not to.
Has anyone heard of using a weak tea solution as eye drops? I do trust my vet. But I'm just a little leary of using tea in the eyes! I think he said tea has tannic which is a good alternative medicine for viral problems. I have done some online researching and haven't come up with anything regarding this tea eye drops for cats.

 

[hissy]

If it is your vet giving you the advice and you trust him, then I would go ahead and follow it. Visine contains caffeine, so there is probably something to this advice.

 

[dawnofsierra]

I have read about this practice in a book about holistic care of cats, but am not extremely familiar with it and have not tried it myself. It is true, though, about the properties of tea your Vet has mentioned, and I would feel much safer using this method over a prescription antiviral ointment.

Be sure the tea is warmed to room temperature, make certain to not touch the dropper to your kitties' eyes, and wash it super thoroughly between uses.

I am quite interested to learn how your kitties' eyes respond to this treatment!

 

[maverick_kitten]

i've heard of used tea bags being used to calm sore human eyes so think its sounds like it would work.

 

[solaritybengals]

I'm not sure about tea but I use colloidal silver as eye drops and its saved one of my kittens from getting a full blown URI. She cleared in 24 hours of her initial syptoms onset. Tea might work well too but what kind of tea????? There are hundreds... Some would be good and some would be awful. Some would sting and some would sooth... Maybe ask you vet about colloidal silver too, it has some incredible properties and you can read about its uses with animals.

 

[gardenandcats]

I have heard of Collidal silver. I will bring that up at my next follow up appointment. The vet said red rose tea. Very weak. Just dipped three quick times in hot water.Then put it in a clean container and store it in the fridge. Will last for 7 days then make it fresh again. I would think it would be rather cold in the eyes after being in the fridge so I will let some sit out and get to room temp before I put it in.
I'll let you know how it works.

 

[solaritybengals]

That dosen't sound to bad. I've done eye washs from teas before (Eyebright) where you had to do the same thing making a batch every few days and keeping it in the fridge. Let me say cold is certainly not cool but I was impatient. A cat is another matter so letting it set to room temperature is your best bet.

 

[clixpix]

One of my foster kittens had a recurring non-bacterial "goopy" eye. After seeing the vet, of course, I did treat her with tea (black tea). I didn't use an eye dropper, but wet make-up pads with it & cleaned her eye with that. Within a week, her eye had cleared up completely, and never recurred.

Tea did what all the meds and ointments could not. I hope you have the same luck!

BTW, she seemed to love the "treatment"...I think she found the tea very soothing.

 

[gardenandcats]

Hmm wet make up pads soaked in tea. I am going to try this. As my Siamese Yowdy simply hates anything done to his eyes. I am having the darndest time trying to put tea drops in his eyes. He weighs 16 1/6 pounds and hes strong. Even with hubbys help I can't get the drops in. We wrap him in a towel or try to but I think he'd break a bone trying to get away. If we do manage to hold him he trys to bite when I get near with the eye dropper. He did the samething with the prescription eye ointment. Hes such a mellow guy but boy not when it comes to eye drops or ointment. The soaking the tea on pads I think he would handle better. Thanks for the tip!

 

[nekomimi]

when seth had a uri, i wiped her goopy eyes clean with soaked, cooled green tea bags once every two days. not only are they gentle, but they clean any bacteria from the area.

 

[solaritybengals]

Originally Posted by Nekomimi

when seth had a uri, i wiped her goopy eyes clean with soaked, cooled green tea bags once every two days. not only are they gentle, but they clean any bacteria from the area.

I'd be cautious of caffeine in some teas. That is one reason why I asked what tea was being used. I believe green tea has caffeine. I think overall though tea as an eye soother is a great idea.

 

[tourmaline]

Red Rose tea also has caffiene in it. Red Rose is just plain black tea so I don't think that green tea would be bad at all. According the caffiene chart I happen to have beside my desk normal black tea has 40 mg of caffiene per cup and green tea has 15 mg of caffiene.

 

[lionessrampant]

I use tea for its anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties on myself, and a solution that diluted doesn't seem like it would do much harm. You'd want to use black or red tea only, I think. Herbal might be dangerous for them depending on the herb and green don't share a lot of their properties with black and red, I believe.

 

[nekomimi]

yes, green tea has very little caffeine. i cannot have a lot of caffeine in my diet or i have panic attacks, so i should know

 

[angel flying free]

black breakfast tea has no caffeine i s what i use . rescued feral cat litters eyes goopy runny & red . the tea remedy worked few days on one & rest i used it on 5 days . one drop 3x a day . usually 5 days cleared up .rescued 14 day old kitten eyes slammed shut within in hours showed improvement .eyes still open next morning

 

[Leonab]

10000%%% worked!!!
My vet (in practice 40 plus years) told me to do this process and it worked.

Just Tetleys tea bag, boiled, cooled right down.
Took tea bag, 3 drops into cats eye and then gently rub around cats eye lid with the tea bag and then wipe clean with tissue. (Ring out the tea bag a little so not dripping everywhere)
3 times a day fir 5 days… No lie, by end of day 2 his eye is perfect. No more eye infection or over watering. I can’t believe it! Saved myself like £100 in vet fees.