What Can You Do for a Kitten's Matted Eyes?

Matted eyes in cats of any age are characterized by mucus-based or watery eye discharge, soreness, and the inability to open due to crusted and hardened seepage. While you need to take your kitten to a veterinarian for proper diagnosis and treatment, you can help relieve your kitten's discomfort at home via simple procedures.

  1. Wipe away the Discharge

    • Wiping the discharge from the matted eye helps keep the area clean, speed relief and provide comfort. Wet a soft, clean cloth or cotton ball with lukewarm water. Wring out any excess water. Gently apply to your kitten's eyes and wipe away the discharge. This should also loosen up hardened or crusted discharge for ample relief. Perform twice a day or as often as needed so that a build-up and hardening of discharge does not occur. Instead of water, you also can use an over-the-counter eye scrub specifically for pets. These scrubs are pH balanced and may not cause as much stinging as water.

    Provide Tears

    • Wiping away already-present discharge helps keep eyelids and the area around the eye clean, but the surface of the eye needs cleansing too. Since it's not safe to clean the eye yourself, provide your kitten with artificial tears. Tears are the eye's self-cleaning agent and help to remove any particles in the eye that could be causing the matting of the eyes. You can do this with prescription drops that your veterinarian recommends for your kitten's specific needs.

    Use a Compress

    • You can also use a cloth as a compress. This not only helps loosen any stubborn discharge crust and keeps the eyes clean, but also provides relief and comfort to your kitten's eyes. Wet a clean cloth with lukewarm water and wring it out so that it is damp. Apply across your kitten's eyes and gently hold it in place for five minutes. If your kitten doesn't like both eyes covered, apply the compress to one eye at a time for five minutes each. After applying it to one eye, rinse out the cloth and apply it to the other eye. If only one eye is matted, it's not necessary to apply the cloth to the unaffected eye.

    Groom Your Kitten

    • Eye irritations can be caused by excessive hair around the eyes. This hair gets into the eye or continually pokes it, causing matting and possibly pink eye. To reduce the irritation and prevent future occurrences of this irritation, regularly brush the hair back from your kitten's eyes or give it a haircut to remove any excess hair.

    Younger Kittens and "Matted" Eyes

    • Kittens that are younger than two weeks may not have matted eyes, but rather not have the ability to open their eyes yet. Thus, if their eyes do not have the typical matted characteristics except the inability to open, allow them eight days past their birth to open their eyes.

    Considerations

    • Applying matting-relief procedures such as wet cloths and compresses should help open the eyes, but if not, try to part the kitten's eyes yourself using clean fingers. Do this only when you've applied a compress, or you have wet the eye via a cotton ball or cloth with lukewarm water and have allowed the water to soak through any hardened discharge. This makes it easier for the discharge to give way when you attempt to open the eyes, lessening the possibility of pain.