Cats Third Eyelid

Roman1_2

The vet put my cat on a course of antibiotics for a tummy upset on Monday. After 48 hours his symptoms have started to disappear so the diagnosis was probably correct. However he still has his third eyelid showing in both eyes. The question is how long after starting treatment should the extra eyelids disappear. Does anyone have any experience of this? Many thanks.

Fosterdog

They can take a while to retract completely. If everything else seems fine I would personally give it two weeks (one for antibiotics and a further week of recovery) if they have t shown any sign of improvement then back to the vet.

I once knew a cat who's third eyelids never fully retracted, he was completely healthy but spent at least seven years with them visible.

Roman1_2

Fosterdog wrote: »

They can take a while to retract completely. If everything else seems fine I would personally give it two weeks (one for antibiotics and a further week of recovery) if they have t shown any sign of improvement then back to the vet.

I once knew a cat who's third eyelids never fully retracted, he was completely healthy but spent at least seven years with them visible.

Very useful answer. Thank you.

scaredy_cat

seeing the third eyelid can be a sign of dehydration, might be as well to take your cat to the vet, as it could damage the kidneys.

Roman1_2

scaredy_cat wrote: »

seeing the third eyelid can be a sign of dehydration, might be as well to take your cat to the vet, as it could damage the kidneys.

Very useful. Thank you.

Roman1_2

Four more days of antibiotics to go and all symptoms have gone apart from the third eyelid. I'll wait until the end of the week and then decide whether to revisit the vet.

Gold_Dust_2

How long did the vet say that it would take for that to clear up? You could give them a ring to be sure about that. My cat has had he third eyelid up for a few months and the vet said that it could take quite a few months for it to go. He called it 'Haws syndrome'.

I'm not saying that that is always the case, though, and I'd deffo check with my vet.

Roman1_2

Gold_Dust wrote: »

How long did the vet say that it would take for that to clear up? You could give them a ring to be sure about that. My cat has had he third eyelid up for a few months and the vet said that it could take quite a few months for it to go. He called it 'Haws syndrome'.

I'm not saying that that is always the case, though, and I'd deffo check with my vet.

Actually, the vet didn't seem too concerned about the eyelid, more the underlying illness. I'll give them a ring when the pills are finished as you suggest. Many thanks for your post.

CaptainAmerica

Dexter, my apricot Siamese, always has his third eyelid on show, it stems from when he was a kitten and he had an eye ulcer and after treatment and the ulcer had gone, his third eylid has never fully retracted, it is permanently halfway across his eye.

This is quite common in the Siamese breed as their eyes are set quite far back, the vets said he could have an operation to put the eyelid back and stitch it to his normal eyelid but as it doesn't affect him, apart from only having half an eye to see through!!, I decided it would be too much to put him through and the vets did agree.

paigesaunt

OMG, I have never heard of such a thing, just Googled it! I had my last cat until he was 14, and thought I knew it all!
Is this just a sign of dehydration?
Have recently adopted an adult rescue cat and a kitten, both had pretty bad lives before coming to us, the adult one isn't as healthy as we would like, so this is another thing to look out for, thanks for the info.

KVet

Diarrhoea and third eyelid protrusion in cats is usually caused by Torovirus and is not a sign of dehydration. Usually most cats get over it in a few weeks. Can take longer sometimes as it's a persistent virus.