"He was trying to catch the
beetle, a big one. The beetle must
have bitten him! He has not
been eating for a few days and has
lost a lot of weight. His right
eye is much swollen!"
You rarely encounter beetles in
Singapore apartments
nowadays and cats will have to
content with lizards and some
cockroaches. The conjunctiva was
so enlarged that the iris could
not be seen. Fortunately,
the eyeball was intact. But for
how long?
An antibiotic injection was
necessary. Antibiotics eye drops
were given and an Elizabeth collar
was worn. This was not a simple
case of eye infection. The cat had
a high fever and was not eating.
You could see a long scratch
laceration wound parallel to the
eyelid. This beetle must have been
fierce and dug into the eyelid
introducing the pus forming
bacterial germs. Antibiotics and
fluid therapy by injection were
given on the first day.
A thick brown exudate glued the
eyelid shut the next day.
The cat was resisting and clawing
when I wanted to open its
upper and lower eyelids to clean
up the pus forming bacterial
infections.
Permission from the Owner to
tranquilise the cat to do the job
was required as the cat may just
die after tranquilization, being
in a weak state. Shiny
yellow pus oozed out of the eyelid
the second day. On day 4,
the eye was free of pus and the
cat went home to be hand-fed and
given eye drops. He would
have used up one of his nine lives
as the bacteria had spread to his
blood stream and caused a high
fever.
I lifted the cat's chin with one
hand and quickly put in 10
eye drops with the other
hand. The affected area was
really a big wound after the
hair was clipped and shaved.
The Beetle's mouthparts
might have sunken into the
conjunctiva (the swollen
fleshy tissue below the
upper eyelid). The cat
had tranquilisation in this
case.
He had an Owner who had sought
veterinary treatment quite early,
otherwise he would have lost his
eye to severe infection and would
have died of sepsis. Many of these
eye infection cases need prompt
treatment and long nursing after
leaving the veterinary clinic.
Left untreated, the cat would have
scratched his eye persistently
till the eyeball gets ruptured.
The pus would get into the eyeball
via the corneal ulcerations and
the eyeball would have
collapsed in due course.
It would be extremely painful and
if the cat survived, it would have
a sunken eyeball and be blind for
the rest of his life. This
cat is fortunate since his owner
has sought veterinary treatment
early enough and saved his
precious eyesight to hunt another
day.
P.S.
I picked out this case from
www.asiaone.com. I went to
"Web", typed "cat eye infection."
The cat has the similar coat
colour as the 2010 case below.
Without this search engine, it
would be difficult for me to fish
out this case. It was written one
decade ago. My digital images were
really the types to be thrown into
the garbage bin but then you must
start your project and learn
from doing and failing.
Failures will occur in your life
time and hopefully, you will
succeed (in producing beautiful
digital images) one day.
2009 CASE: THE CAT HAS A PAINFUL EYE
Dr
Sing Kong Yuen, BVMS (Glasgow), MRCVS
First recorded: 22 August, 2009
27 February, 2013
A bright sunshine morning made me
feel that I should be outdoors on
this August 1, 2010 Sunday. But I
had my duties. Below is an
interesting cat case. Interesting
to vet students I hope.
The cat had tearing of the left
eye for the past two weeks. There
is another cat at home. "Probably
the other cat has scratched his
eye," the young lady said. "The
tearing stopped a while and came
back again."
I noted that both ears were full
of wet ear wax. "I clean the ears
but the dirt comes back," the
young lady told me. "But the other
cat has such clean ears."
So, there was a problem. How to
resolve the cat's ear and left eye
problem? Go back to basics and an
understanding of the cat's
grooming behaviour. The treatment
plan is given below and in visual
means as I know the young ones
just don't have time or interest
to read grandmother's stories.
Dogs and cats with eye
discharge for 2 weeks may
have foreign bodies embedded
inside the eye conjunctiva
or inside the 3rd eyelid. As
the animal cannot get rid of
the foreign bodies, it must
be sedated and the 3rd
eyelid and conjunctiva
checked for embedded foreign
bodies. They are irrigated
with water to flush away the
dirt. Sometimes, the dirt
comes from the ear infected
wax and debris.
Therefore, it is not just a
simple case of giving some
medication and eye-drops as
further scratching may cause
eye corneal ulcerations and
an infected inner eye,
leading to loss of vision
and eye. Sometimes,
vets are so busy and do
overlook that epiphora over
1 week's duration does need
more detailed examination
and treatment under
anaesthesia to save the poor
animal's eyesight and
relieve the pain.
Very few feline eye problems seen at Toa Payoh Vets
compared to canine during the past 40 years of practice.
The above 3 cases are collected after searching the
internet cases written by me.
More info at:
Dogs or
Cats
To
make an appointment: e-mail
judy@toapayohvets.com
tel: +65 9668-6469, 6254-3326
TOA
PAYOH VETS
