Honestly, Karen I'd call the vet and take her in.  It could be something
that could spread to her sister.
hth,
Christine

Would you wait for a month if your eye were goopy?  I wouldn't.  I'm no doctor
or vet, but I'd imagine that something like that could be harmless, but it
could also cause permanent damage or be indicative of a bigger problem.  Then
again, I go to the doctor at the first sign of anything weird.  I figure,
better safe than sorry.

Is there any sign of damage to the eye itself?  What's the goop look like on a
white tissue?  Eros has a cloudy spot from a scratch received as a kitten.
The scratch must have affected the tear duct; it constantly secretes a
pink-tinged fluid.  We've taken him to the vet; apparently cats have three
lenses (or something?) and two of them grew together while healing from the
scratch (if I get that wrong, it's my misunderstanding and not my vet's).  The
eye doesn't seem to bother him at all.  We tried antibiotic eyedrops, but Eros
hated them, they never completely cleared up the fluid, and as soon as we
stopped, it was right back, same as ever.  I decided that, since Eros didn't
seem to notice the eye issue, it wasn't worth upsetting him by tackling him
twice a day and forcing drops into his eye.

Which is all to say, yeah, it could be harmless, but I'd make sure, just in
case.

I don't think I would wait a whole month if her eye has been goopy this
long. They will give you a little ointment for it.

Lots of purrs and best wishes,

It could be feline herpes. Roxy has that, and the chronic goopy eye is
her main symptom. The vet can test for it with an eye swab or scrape.
(The scrape is a more involved test, but is also more accurate; the swab
is easy but might give a false negative. Roxy had the swab first, and it
came back positive - so, no need for the scrape.)

Feline herpes is a chronic viral infection which usually stays dormant,
but stress (usually physical stress, but emotional stress as well) will
cause a "flare-up". This could mean different things - in Roxy, it
usually means she gets a bit listless and sleeps a lot, and doesn't
eat as much. Sometimes, with a larger stressor, it could cause a URI.
For example, after she was spayed, she got a really bad URI that took
about 3 weeks to get under control.

WHen she has a flareup, I treat her with alpha-interferon, which I get
from the vet. It's an inexpensive and effective medication. It's an
odorless (and, I hope, tasteless) liquid that I squirt in her mouth
once a day for a week. Then she gets one week off, and then another
week of daily treatments. This has always brought her flareups under
control. Roxy's a pretty healthy kitty, and except for her goopy eye
and a somewhat stuffy nose, she's fine. She's active, eats well, has
a good weight, and a clean, shiny coat.

There's a lot of information about feline herpes - you could Google
for it to find sites. Also, there's a Yahoogroups email list called
felineherpes you could join, if it turns out that's what Silver has.
If she does, then you will need to be somewhat protective of her, as
she will always be a bit immune-compromised. For example, if you do
cat rescue or fostering, you'll need to isolate any strange cats from
Silver until you're sure they have no communicable diseases. And of
course, you need to protect them from Silver's virus!

I'd advise getting the eye swab first, and if it comes up negative,
the have the scrape. (The swab can be done in the vet's office while
you're there, but I think the scrape might require sedation - I'm
not sure, as I didn't get that far.)

Anyway, after all that, I hope she doesn't have herpes. It's not a
life-threatening condition (usually), but it does require some care
and attention, throughout the cat's life.

Good luck!

Joyce

In <4h4sp0lb6r6r5knd68n93e5hlr8tcdavc3@4ax.com>,
Karen AKA KajiKit <kanospamjikit@gmail.com> shouted to everyone in earshot,

[...]

aww, how cute, an emoticon about her goopy eye. <g>

anyway, I hope it's something easily cleared up!

Jeff

I'd say take her to the vet ASAP.  It could be as serious herpes, or it
could just be sleep, but you don't want to take the chance that it's
serious.

Hugs,

CatNipped

Betty developed a goopy eye shortly after I brought her home from the
shelter.  The shelter warned me to expect that, because colds get
around at the shelter.

The vet gave me some topical ointment for the infection, but Betty
sure didn't like it!  I'm sure that this is a very bad practice with
an antibiotic, but as soon as the infection went down to a nominal
level, I stopped.  Fortunately, the infection was already going away,
and it was soon gone.

So I'm a medication wimp!  I can't bring myself to do painful and
uncomfortable things to a cat, even if it's for its own good!  My
nightmare is that the next time I go to TED, she'll give me
instructions like, "If you want Betty to live, make an incision in her
scalp 3x a day with the enclosed jagged razorblade, and thoroughly rub
in the concentrated saline and vinegar solution".