Ragdoll Cat Forums

Okay. I'm a mess of nerves. This past Friday I took Chloe in to get spayed. The procedure went well and I brought her home Saturday morning. The vet gave me a list of instructions of what to do (keep her quiet for 10-12 days, watch for infections on her stitches, if they come undone call this number , yadda, yadda, yadda ... You know the drill. Anyways, I have caught her licking her stitches and told her no! She will stop yet will do again after awhile but not all the time. I did noticed a little hole where the stitch was but am concerned about her splitting it open. It is not swollen nor red nor has puss coming out of it.

Now last night her eyes were fine and bright. When I came home from work today, I noticed her left eye looked squinted sorts and red. My wife noticed it looked infected and I agree. Called the vet and won't get her in til Thursday morning at 9 am. I wiped the eye gently with a guaze pad & warm water to help her. I makes me nerved up to see her this way although the list of instructions did say to watch for eye indfections.

I don't know why her eye is liek that except I'm thinking she got into something to irritate her cornea or she accidently scratched herself while grooming herself. Could it be that she licked her stitches and transfered the meds from there to her eye by using the same paw?

I'm such a wreck and I don't know what to do except wait til her Thursday morning vet appointment. I know Chloe knows I'm concerned for her well being because she follows me around and purrs.

Poor Chloe - and you! Did the vet give Chloe antibiotics? If not and her eye is infected, she will likely need a course of antibiotics.

Is there an emergency vet you can ring? I'd get her in sooner than Thursday a.m. if possible.

I know it's hard, but try your best to not to stress too much. As you mention, Chloe will pick up on it and become stressed herself, which can then make her infection worse.

Hang in there and keep us posted.

Licking is not likely to bother the stitches. You are looking for the right things.

I also would try to get an earlier appointment for the eye so that meds can be started if needed. (Even consider having the vet let you pick them up based on symptoms without seeing her.) If there is a cloudy discharge, angry redness, etc., then I would try even harder to have meds started. If the discharge is clear, then it is likely primarily viral and any meds will just protect against a bacterial infection starting too. In that case, a delay in seeing the vet is less important.

So sorry about Chloe -- I do hope that you can get her an earlier appointment. I would be very upset if my vet didn't see one of my cats on the day I called in with a problem. I've never had to wait, sometimes I've had to almost throw them in the carrier and head out the door to get there by the time they say they can be seen.

Whilst you are waiting for her to be seen....a useful tip to soothe her eye. Keep any teabags you use (hopefully you are tea drinkers!) and let them go cold on a clean saucer. When you are ready to use it, gently rinse the teabag under cold water, slightly squeeze it out and then use it as a pad to gently wipe across her eye (closed!). This should soothe her a eye a little and clean it up at the same time. Our Tiffy-T has a recurring eye problem, which we now know how to deal with as soon as it flares up and we always use teabags to bathe it. If you are given an ointment for the eye; it is still a good idea to treat it this way first to clean it up. Just a word of warning, be careful to gently remove any traces of discharge that may have hardened around the corner of her eye as you do not want to scratch her eye as you wipe it with the teabag. Be sure of course, never to transfer any thing from one eye to the other. If they both need bathing, use different teabags and try to wash your hands in between dealing with each eye, this is especially relevant is one eye is still OK, so that you don't spread infection where avoidable.

Get well wishes for Chloe
x

Hope that you can get an earlier appointment to the vet. Wishing you and Chloe well

Sorry fo rthe late update but I just want to fill you in on what has transpired. I took SueK's advice except I used a simple roll guaze soaked in cold water to wipe Chloe's eye while I await for her Thursday morning vet appointment. Thursday morning, I noticed her eye seemed a whole lot better. I still took her to the vet to have her stitches checked out. She did indeed have an eye infection. The vet prescribed eye drops 3x/day or 3 days.

He checked her stitches and they were split open but no infection. He proceeded to take her in to have staples put in. He also gave her a shot of antibiotics as well as liquid antibiotics to take 2x/day until gone. (I don't do pills because I always find them on the floor later when I used to give them to my previous cat. God, how I hated it when that happens! LOL!)

She is now more herself and feeling better everyday. Heck, this is where I found her this morning on my son's bed sleeping. ROFLMBO!!

So glad to see Chloe's doing better! That's such a cute photo of her.

ragtagragdoll Wrote:Okay. I'm a mess of nerves. This past Friday I took Chloe in to get spayed. The procedure went well and I brought her home Saturday morning. The vet gave me a list of instructions of what to do (keep her quiet for 10-12 days, watch for infections on her stitches, if they come undone call this number , yadda, yadda, yadda ... You know the drill. Anyways, I have caught her licking her stitches and told her no! She will stop yet will do again after awhile but not all the time. I did noticed a little hole where the stitch was but am concerned about her splitting it open. It is not swollen nor red nor has puss coming out of it.

Now last night her eyes were fine and bright. When I came home from work today, I noticed her left eye looked squinted sorts and red. My wife noticed it looked infected and I agree. Called the vet and won't get her in til Thursday morning at 9 am. I wiped the eye gently with a guaze pad & warm water to help her. I makes me nerved up to see her this way although the list of instructions did say to watch for eye indfections.

I don't know why her eye is liek that except I'm thinking she got into something to irritate her cornea or she accidently scratched herself while grooming herself. Could it be that she licked her stitches and transfered the meds from there to her eye by using the same paw?

I'm such a wreck and I don't know what to do except wait til her Thursday morning vet appointment. I know Chloe knows I'm concerned for her well being because she follows me around and purrs.

ragtagragdoll Wrote:Okay. I'm a mess of nerves. This past Friday I took Chloe in to get spayed. The procedure went well and I brought her home Saturday morning. The vet gave me a list of instructions of what to do (keep her quiet for 10-12 days, watch for infections on her stitches, if they come undone call this number , yadda, yadda, yadda ... You know the drill. Anyways, I have caught her licking her stitches and told her no! She will stop yet will do again after awhile but not all the time. I did noticed a little hole where the stitch was but am concerned about her splitting it open. It is not swollen nor red nor has puss coming out of it.

Now last night her eyes were fine and bright. When I came home from work today, I noticed her left eye looked squinted sorts and red. My wife noticed it looked infected and I agree. Called the vet and won't get her in til Thursday morning at 9 am. I wiped the eye gently with a guaze pad & warm water to help her. I makes me nerved up to see her this way although the list of instructions did say to watch for eye indfections.

I don't know why her eye is liek that except I'm thinking she got into something to irritate her cornea or she accidently scratched herself while grooming herself. Could it be that she licked her stitches and transfered the meds from there to her eye by using the same paw?

I'm such a wreck and I don't know what to do except wait til her Thursday morning vet appointment. I know Chloe knows I'm concerned for her well being because she follows me around and purrs.

I am pretty sure it is probably Feline Herpes Virus. It probably happened because of the stress. She probably had it all along and it just came out now under the stress of being fixed. Poor baby. I am sure she will be fine and I wouldn't take her to the emergency vet. They will cost a fortune and say the same thing your vet will say. They will most likely give you Liceine (spelling) mineral powder in her food from now on, but she should be perfectly fine if that's what it is. Hope that helps calm your nerves a little