I am not a vet. However I did go to school as a vet tech and work as a vet tech some years ago, I never completed the degree program, but it was in an actual brick and mortar college and I was paid a living wage by the vet I worked for... Thats a disclaimer to what I'm about to say...
We got two kittens about a month ago. They have overall been a joy, but about a week ago, we noticed that one was squinting her left eye occasionally. It wasn't goopy, she wasn't snotty, it almost looked like she was sleepy and only sometimes, but more often than would be normal. Over the course of the week it got a little worse, looked like some minor conjunctival swelling causing a little bit of discharge occasionally so I started wiping it with warm water and it seemed to be going away. Since it was holding steady I wasn't alarmed enough to get an emergency appointment or anything, and by the time I decided I had to get her in and it wasn't getting better she was getting a bit more discharge and a sneeze or two a day, but her eye was still open about halfway most of the time, and no nasal discharge. When I called the vet did not have any available hours for an actual appointment anytime when I could get her in, they offered me a drop off appointment that is done at the vets convenience (and did not bother to mention that there would be a "daycare" fee) since it was all they had I agreed. We dropped her off, and I had to go to work so my husband was the one dealing with the calls and irritating techs at our vet hospital. Basically, they gave my husband the runaround, they decided to do a full stain and swab and then finally after over 7 hours a tech came out and said "its probably an RI so here's some $40 ointment (in a tube the size of barbie's toothpaste), put it in her eye every 8 hours and it should take care of the whole thing, and we didn't do the first dose, thats up to you"
WHAT? Is this normal? How is eye ointment that is basically neosporin thats approved for use in the eye going to cure an RI? And why wouldn't they have taken it as an RI or conjunctivitis in the first place instead of charging us for a stain? and on top of that, this minor conjunctival swelling that has until now, for about a week, stayed relatively stable, suddenly tonight after seeing the vet has blown up to a full out eye shut and when I went to try to get the ointment in it the surface of her eye was COVERED in green discharge which it has not been until today.
I need some advice from folks who have had cats with RI's that cause eye problems, did we get totally shafted? because that's how it feels to me.
I had been thinking we needed a new vet, but this is absolute proof to me, that the vet couldn't even be the one to come out and answer his very minimal questions and explain the ointment is atrocious, and neither of us believes that ointment will fix an internal infection, no matter how expensive it was, and then her eye looks so much worse after they looked at it, all around, any help would be very very appreciated.
thanks kitty folks!
We got two kittens about a month ago. They have overall been a joy, but about a week ago, we noticed that one was squinting her left eye occasionally. It wasn't goopy, she wasn't snotty, it almost looked like she was sleepy and only sometimes, but more often than would be normal. Over the course of the week it got a little worse, looked like some minor conjunctival swelling causing a little bit of discharge occasionally so I started wiping it with warm water and it seemed to be going away. Since it was holding steady I wasn't alarmed enough to get an emergency appointment or anything, and by the time I decided I had to get her in and it wasn't getting better she was getting a bit more discharge and a sneeze or two a day, but her eye was still open about halfway most of the time, and no nasal discharge. When I called the vet did not have any available hours for an actual appointment anytime when I could get her in, they offered me a drop off appointment that is done at the vets convenience (and did not bother to mention that there would be a "daycare" fee) since it was all they had I agreed. We dropped her off, and I had to go to work so my husband was the one dealing with the calls and irritating techs at our vet hospital. Basically, they gave my husband the runaround, they decided to do a full stain and swab and then finally after over 7 hours a tech came out and said "its probably an RI so here's some $40 ointment (in a tube the size of barbie's toothpaste), put it in her eye every 8 hours and it should take care of the whole thing, and we didn't do the first dose, thats up to you"
WHAT? Is this normal? How is eye ointment that is basically neosporin thats approved for use in the eye going to cure an RI? And why wouldn't they have taken it as an RI or conjunctivitis in the first place instead of charging us for a stain? and on top of that, this minor conjunctival swelling that has until now, for about a week, stayed relatively stable, suddenly tonight after seeing the vet has blown up to a full out eye shut and when I went to try to get the ointment in it the surface of her eye was COVERED in green discharge which it has not been until today.
I need some advice from folks who have had cats with RI's that cause eye problems, did we get totally shafted? because that's how it feels to me.
I had been thinking we needed a new vet, but this is absolute proof to me, that the vet couldn't even be the one to come out and answer his very minimal questions and explain the ointment is atrocious, and neither of us believes that ointment will fix an internal infection, no matter how expensive it was, and then her eye looks so much worse after they looked at it, all around, any help would be very very appreciated.
thanks kitty folks!
