# Cat has one watery eye but no other symptoms



## sparkbark

I noticed today that my cat, a 4 year old tabby, has one eye that seems to be watering excessively. The discharge is clear and just looks like tears, but it seems to harden into a dark brownish crust. He always has gotten a bit of "eye gunk" that I wipe off periodically, and so has every other cat I've owned, but this is more than usual. It doesn't seem to be bothering him, and he is eating and playing normally, and not paying any special attention to the eye or squinting it or anything. His other eye seems slightly more wet than usual but it's not running out of his eye. Being paranoid I worried he might be sick and so I felt his ears and nose for signs of a fever. His ears felt slightly warm but it's hard to tell if they are warmer than usual or if I am just noticing it more. He is an indoor cat and lives with no other animals. He is acting normally, but normal behavior also includes loud, persistent meowing whenever he wants attention, so it's hard to tell if he might be meowing because he doesn't feel well.

I am in a very bad financial situation and can't afford to go to the vet unless he might really be sick. Of course if he is sick, I will take him, but I'd rather avoid it if it's not necessary because I am having a hard time just making rent right now.

Any advice?

Thanks!


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## KatBudz

That can happen to cats if they get some debris or dust or hair in their eyes. One good thing you can try is gently rub around the area of the eye, which stimulates more tears, and he may just cry it out that way if something could possibly be in his eye, either way I'm guessing it should pass soon, just keep an eye on it.


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## doodlebug

Eyes are nothing to fool around with, but I don't think you're at the point of needing to run to the vet. If he starts closing the eye or you start seeing a pus-like discharge then you'll want to go to the vet. In the meantime, I would recommend flushing the eye with some unpreserved saline, basically contact lens solution (do not make your own salt water, if the salt isn't completely dissolved you could do more harm than good). I would not recommend rubbing anything around the eye, if there is debris, you could scratch the cornea.


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## scratchmonkey

Of course, I'm not a vet and I can't diagnose your cat; however, this sounds exactly like what one of my cats, named Red Bones, has. The vet claims that in her case, it's a blocked tear duct, which functionally means that everything that's supposed to drain down into her nose drains out of her eye, so it's basically mucus/excess eye lubrication that dries into a brown gunk that she loves to wipe on us. In our case, since the cat doesn't seem to be bothered by it, the vet didn't think it was worth it to try and unblock the duct, since that would be (pretty much) unnecessary surgery, which can be dangerous.

Hopefully whatever's happening with your cat is similarly harmless.


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## mrvmrvmrv

Your cat may have cat herpes. They say 90% of the cats has herpes virus in their bodies and usually it doesn't show itself at all, but this eye watering may be one of the symptoms. It is nothing dangerous or serious, one of my cats has had it for years. She periodically has flare-ups, usually in cold time of the year, and the only symptom is a clear eye discharge. We go to the vet and she prescribes eye drops, they cost about $20. Then I just give her eye drops for 3-4 days, and everything is back to normal. My other cat never had it, even they lived together all their lives.


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