Chronic Eye Discharge in an Otherwise Healthy Cat

Immune Suppressive Diseases like Feline AIDS, Leukemia, & FIP are Important to Consider

Question:

We have the best cat in the world, his name is Bing. He has chronically goopy eyes. We’ve tried anti-allergen food, but it doesn’t reduce the discharge. We also tried an organic, non-silica kitty litter, which did no good. Is the eye stuff a big problem?

Dr. Nichol:

Bing thanks you for caring about his uncomfortable eyes and for bragging on his ranking in the world of cats. He is lucky to have you. That said, I’m concerned about that persistent infection.

There are lots of possible reasons for that mess including insufficient tears, foreign material beneath his eyelids, and thick nasty discharge blocking his tear ducts. If measurements of his tear flow are normal, it would be wise of his doctor to flush those tear ducts and take a culture.

There could be more. What if Bing’s infection lingers because his immune system just isn’t up to the job? Blood tests for feline AIDS, leukemia, and FIP are an important place to start. A thorough understanding of his problem is essential to a cure. We can’t fix it if we don’t know why it’s there.