Blue Eyed Baby (Part 2:Sore Eyed Baby)

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March 13th 2013 8:34 am
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My new human mom was treating my eyes two to three times daily, I made it clear to her I felt good except for my eyes being sore, and I also made it equally clear to her I was sick of being cooped up in that crate. I wanted to come out and play with the other kitties, especially my big black new friend Buddha who seemed so strong and at the same time, so gentle and friendly at the same time.

Buddha was as good as his word. He stayed close by my crate most of the time until after I'd had my flea drops and my dewormer and had proven I was eating, drinking, urinating, and defecating normally. At this time my new human mom decided to release me even though I was still fighting the "plague" of the kitten herpes eye virus.

My new human mom went ahead and released me because my only problem was my sore eyes. Although often a kitten who has the eye herpes virus also has upper respiratory virus problems at the same time, my only problem was my sore eyes. I didn't have any respiratory symptoms at all. Mom wasn't that worried about my herpes virus causing contagion problems since at least 90% of all adult cats already have been exposed to the feline herpes virus, at least 85% are exposed to it in kittenhood. I was the only kitty who had sore eyes at the time.

As soon as I was released from the crate, Buddha became my friend, surrogate mother, and protector. Buddha took good care of me. He washed me just as well as my own kitty mother used to wash me and comfort me when I was a little baby kitten. Buddha let me cuddle with him all I wanted to, which helped me get used to my new home a lot faster. I knew Buddha wouldn't let anything hurt me.

My right eye cleared up early on. My left eye remained sore a long time though and for awhile the rim around my eye was sort of red and I didn't open my left eye as fully as my right eye and my human mom worried that the herpes virus might have damaged it. Thankfully, eventually the virus cleared up totally in my left eye too and I haven't had any more problem at all with sore eyes for a long time now. Even when Velcro and Buttons came (and Buttons had one of the worst cases of herpes virus eye problems including corneal ulcers, that Mom said she'd ever seen in a cat who had NO RESIDUAL SCARRING AFTERWARD.)

My human mom was hoping my eyes would stay that vivid blue color but as kitten eyes usually do, my eyes changed to a red-gold color that actually matches my red-orange color in my coat and is just as beautiful as the blue color my eyes were when I was little.

Now it was time for me to work on earning myself a name...

Leave A Comment | 7 people already have

Purred by: Henry (Catster Member)

March 13th 2013 at 8:48 am

So happy Buddah has taken care of you and your pretty eyes are healing up...
Henry

Purred by: Monster (Catster Member)

March 13th 2013 at 3:25 pm

What a floofernutter you are! What kind of drops did your mom put in your eyes? My sisfur has had a runny, wonky eye all her life.

Purred by: Bratsky (Catster Member)

March 16th 2013 at 6:58 am

Mom would use regular sterile saline human eye drops to flush the crud out of my eyes. After that she put antibiotic eye ointment from the vet into my eyes. It didn't seem to work so well so the vet had her switch to using Panalog. My right eye cleared up fairly quickly. It seemed to take MONTHS of Panalog treatment for my left eye to clear up though (even in my main profile photo taken when I was mostly grown up, you can see my left eye still was a bit too red around the rim and sometimes I didn't open it as fully as my right eye.) To mom's relief, my left eye did finally heal completely without any corneal scarring. (& Even then Mom said my eyes never were as bad as Buttons eyes-Mom says Buttons is the worst case of kitten herpes of the eyes she's ever seen before that ended up healing without any corneal scarring or other permanent damage.)

Purred by: Universal W

March 16th 2013 at 7:26 am

Purred by: Bratsky (Catster Member)

March 16th 2013 at 7:26 am

There are many possible causes for a runny eye. If the fluid is relatively clear and thin when it comes out of the eye, it may be due to allergies, superficial irritation, or a blockage or defect of the tear duct causing the tears to drain onto the face. With the one cat Mom had who had a tear duct problem, although drainage would be clear coming out of the eye, it would get sort of crusty and brown looking after it dried on the skin. That kitty, named Whoops, would come to Mom to have Mom clean up her eye a minimum of at least once every day. After cleaning the eye, Mom would put just a bit of Vaseline on Whoops face alongside Whoops' nose in the area where the eye drainage would run, which would help protect Whoops skin from being irritated by the running eye fluid. The eye itself was normal, not red or sore looking or anything like that.

Mom said it's much easier to treat an eye that is runny though, than it is to have to deal with a "dry eye" medical problem. Animals with "dry eye" MUST have the affected eye lubricated twice a day as long as they live.

Purred by: Percy (Catster Member)

March 17th 2013 at 9:37 am

I'm so happy you have a big strong guy like Buddha helping you out. Try taking lisine supplements for your herpes. A feline lisine gel is called Viralys. Take care of that eye! :)

Purred by: Bratsky (Catster Member)

March 17th 2013 at 9:54 pm

Thank you, Percy.
I haven't had any more problems with my herpes virus for a long time but if I get stressed out or something & it flares up again, Mom saved your info about Lisine supplements for reference!