Freaked out this afternoon when I came home from church and saw Tiger
squinting in one eye. He does this occasionally.. but this seemed a
little more urgent. After we got back from Easter dinner at my folks',
he was pawing at the eye, obviously uncomfortable. I called the
Emergency Clinic (this crap only happens on the weekends.. =P). They
noted he lived with another cat who rassles with him, and suggested we
bring him in in case it was a corneal scratch.

After our previous experience, we'd been instilled with the fear of
god about the dangers of corneal scratches. So I was extra concerned,
especially with him pawing at the eye and possibly exacerbating any
wound there.

They did a flourescent dye/eval and determined he didn't have a
scratch (ironically, he'd sustained and recovered from a scratch from
our previous, much beloved stray adoption Howard when he was just
two). The vet took a good look and realized his conjunctiva were
swollen, and diagnosed conjunctivitis from an unknown cause. I suspect
allergies or other dust, since today was the first day (in Minnesota)
that we'd thrown open all the windows. I figure he got a good eyeful
of the crap that all my human-friend allergy-sufferers have been
complaining about all day.

Howard had some wierd FIV varient, and so I'm well trained in applying
steroid goo to the ocular orb. Howard was a bit more complacent,
though. It's hard to believe an eight-pound cat can wrestle his way
out of two humans' grip. We assumed full cat-jitsu restraints and
managed to get the goo in his eyes. Only six more applications.. =P

I called back later to ask the vet if conjunctivitis was painful.

During Tiger's earlier eye injury and poor Howard's horrible FIV-like
illness (which caused his eyes to swell incredibly and made him blind)
the vets told me how eye injuries are enormously painful, but because
of cats' incredible tolerance to pain (if you're a carnivore, you
can't show pain because it means you're finished) you can't really
judge how much they're suffering.

The vet said cat conjunctivitis was similar to the same condition in
humans, and though it's irritating, it's not excruciating.

Good ol' Tiger. Rescued from a feral farm-cat colony, he went to Paul
Bunyan-land as a kitten with us. Then he stayed at a cabin and played
up north with us. He's seen five cats come and go through the house
without losing his friendliness. I hate to think of his mortality.

But it seems he's dodged this bullet. My wife says I'm a good
Kitty-Daddy. I'm just glad he's okay and getting some relief tonight
instead of tomorrow. =)

BLink
Brian Link, Minnesota Countertenor
----------------------------------
"The chimpanzee wore a little blue blazer with brass buttons, and with
the seal of the President of the United States sewed to the breast
pocket....Everywhere he went, bands would play 'Hail to the Chief.'
The chimpanzee loved it. He would bounce up and down." - Kurt Vonnegut