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My kitten's eye is swollen and draining after treatment, is it normal?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | American Shorthair | Female | unspayed

My kitten has conjunctivitis and an upper respiratory infection and i was prescribed an antibiotic and ointment for her. she seems to feel better, but her eye is swollen and a clear pus like liquid is coming out of it. is it normal for this to happen while healing or is there a problem?

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3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr Stafford, BVetMed, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on August 16th, 2017

Poor Daisy! It can take the eye a little time to respond to the ointment, and sometimes it will get worse before better. I would apply the ointment 3 times a day if it is this bad. If the eye does not start to settle, or you notice cloudiness or redness on the eyeball itself, I would take her back to the vet as sometimes when the eye is sore they can scratch it and cause an ulcer on the eye itself, this can be serious.

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    Answered By Karly Macon, DVM, MS, CVA Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist

    Veterinarian

    Published on April 11th, 2017

    This could be normal for Bruce. Also, if he has a viral upper respiratory infection, the eye meds are not going to fix ocular discharge entirely. All they are going to do is to prevent a secondary bacterial infection in the eyes. So the drops do a good job of getting yellow/green discharge to clear up, but the infection that is causing the ocular discharge in the first place is not going to disappear right away. In fact, some infections like feline herpes virus never go away completely, but as the kitten ages his immune system will be better prepared to deal with it and "outbreaks" will be less frequent. I have good luck with oral Lycine for feline herpes outbreaks that are characterized by sneezing and ocular discharge. Hope that helps!

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    Answered By Jessica Keay, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on September 13th, 2018

    I am sorry to hear about Leo! I would continue what you are doing and if you have any sterile eye wash you can rinse his eyes thoroughly (or pick some up at the pet store) in case he got something in his eye like some pieces of dirt/debris. If he is still squinting tomorrow I would recommend calling your vet to let them know. We can see eye infections along with some upper respiratory infections but we also worry about scratches and corneal ulcerations and your vet may want to examine the eyes to check for these, and may want to prescribe eye drops/ointment if they are concerned.

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