My Kitty has Herpes

Poor Gilbert!  We noticed late last night, when Dan was doing his daily eye clean (Gilbert gets a lot of eye burgers), Dan and I noticed his right eye wasn't opening all the way.   Dan went to gently rub out the eye burgers and poor guy whimpered in pain!  He winced and quickly turned his nose to hide in Dan's elbow.  Dan coaxed his little head out and I quickly tried to open his eye.  Gilbert's inside eye lid was all swollen & red!

Dan reacted quickly.  He went online looking for a vet.  We found one.  Affiliated Vet Emergency Service was a 24 hour ER for pets!  Dan said to me, "Let's go.  Got the phone? Got the keys?"  I was discombobulated, and could barely find my own head.  "You're horrible in stressful situations,"  He chuckled.  We got our sad old little cardboard carrier, I grabbed a dirty smelly shirt of Dan's to put in the carrier. Dan grabbed Gilbert from Gary.  Gary was trying to clean Gilbert's eye!  Dan placed Gilbert in the box.  Gilbert was a good boy about the box.  No complaints.

As we were driving Dan was thinking deeply, shaking his head.  "What?" I asked.  "This reminds me of every time we had to take Gabrielle to the ER for her ear infections.." I sympathized with him momentarily, then humorously added, "Well, this isn't Gabby, this is Gilbert."  Dan chuckled.  "Yea, my daughter and a cat."  It lightened the mood and we continued on to the vet.

The vet was extremely busy!  There were dogs, bunnies, other cats, and arguing family members.  Absolute chaos in the waiting room.  But the staff was great, quick and efficient.  

This was Gilbert on the examination table, curled up to Dan's shirt.  Poor guy was a trooper.  He let the vet examine him, he never cried.  Dan commented that, "Little guy knows we're here to help him."

The prognosis: conjuctivitis.  Or simply put, cat eye infection.  The vet explained that the number one reason for this in cats is the Herpes Virus, however it still may be bacterial.  In her opinion, it's the herpes.  I teased Dan, "Your cat has herpes!"  "Your cat's retarded!" he shot back with hurt feelings. I laughed and laughed at him.

The doctor prescribed a antibiotic ointment and a pain reliever.  She showed us how to apply the ointment in his eye and how to administer his medicine for the pain.  Apparently the pain reliever is a controlled substance is the human equivalent to vicodin, in a liquid form.  I will tell you it definitely worked on him!

This was Gilbert after pain medications was given to him.  Poor guy.

This morning, it looked like the swelling went down a bit, but Gilbert was very gingerly trying to clean his eye.  I tried to reapply the eye ointment while Dan held him, but apparently how I was doing it was unacceptable.  lol  After all, Dan & Gilbert are buddies.  Dan should be administering the drugs to Gilbert, not me.  lol  I don't mind how ever it gets done, as long as its done.

So Gilbert is now doped up, sitting under the kitchen table enjoying the sunshine.  I hope his eye gets better soon.