My rescue kitten's eye irritation isn't improving with Terramycin.

Question

We just adopted a 12-week-old rescue kitten who seem to have an ongoing eye irritation; rescue entity gave terramycin but no improvement noted after 3 days. Kitten seems otherwise unaffected; little and/or clear discharge. Should I just continue with terramycin or schedule vet visit or other remedy? Pet's info: Cat | Domestic Longhair | Male | neutered | 3 months and 25 days old

Dr. Strydom, DVM · Accepted Answer

Oh my goodness Oliver is adorable!! So happy you adopted him! Common eye issues in kittens are Herpes and Chlamydia. Cat herpes is responsible for most kitten eye infections. Cat chlamydia is close in the running for second place. Unlike human herpes, cat herpes is spread like the common cold and causes cold-like symptoms, including nasty-looking eye inflammation. Chlamydia is spread through close contact and causes cold-like symptoms and conjunctivitis. Neither are contagious to humans or any animals besides cats. Both have vaccines, but they don't necessarily stop infection but they can reduce severity. Most infections run their course (though kittens weakened by malnourishment, temperature extremes, injury, or other diseases do sometimes die from the added physical stress), but cats may have periodic outbreaks for the rest of their lives. Terramycin is the first line treatment for Chlamydia so if you are not seeing much improvement it could be that he has herpes virus and not Chlamydia. Of course he could have something else but those two diseases are the most common. My recommendation would be to give it the weekend since he seems otherwise happy and healthy and then take him in for a check-up at the beginning of next week. If you are applying the Terramycin twice a day I would recommend you increase to three or four times a day until the recheck appointment. I hope this helps. Best wishes to you and Oliver!

My rescue kitten's eye irritation isn't improving with Terramycin.

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