Drooling and eye discharge in cats

Our question this week was:

I noticed some mucus on my cat’s eye then the next day, he has been drooling excessively from his mouth. He stays outside mostly, and comes inside to eat and take a nap. I have other pets and I am concerned about them being around him until I find out what could be wrong. He is has not been neutered and is about 1 1/2 years old. I have not really noticed any changes in his eating habits. He seems to eating and drinking normally. Could it possibly be a common cold or something more serious?

Thank you,

Suzanne

Answer

Hi – thanks for your email. Well, there are a variety of possible causes for your cat’s symptoms. It sounds like the primary problems are the “mucous” by or around the eye and his excessive drooling. I’m very glad to hear that he is eating and drinking normally.

It’s difficult to answer this question without actually seeing your cat and examining his eye and mouth. There may be one problem causing the signs or two separate problems. I’ve seen this combination of symptoms in cats with some viral disease such as Herpes or virus. The problems may also be unrelated. Other possible causes include trauma, a bite wound, a bad tooth or oral trauma, licking a toxin of some sort among other things.

Bite wounds are much more common in intact male cats. You may want to consider getting him neutered.

An article that might be helpful to you is on our Petplace.com is Eye Discharge in Cats. Another article that might be helpful is on drooling and is called Ptyalism (Hypersalivation) in Cats. These articles will take you through the most common causes for these symptoms and may help you figure out the problem.

The safest thing to do is to have him examined by your veterinarian to help you figure out the problem.

Best of luck!

Dr. Debra

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