Is it safe to use human eye drops for cats?

7 years ago

A white Persian cat with brown eyes laying on a brown blanket

Hi Indi,

I’ve always been in support of trying to treat things at home rather than instantly running to the animal clinic. The most important thing is that anything we treat with will not cause any harm. The first type of harm is obvious and that would be a treatment that is detrimental. The second type of harm is if we start treating a condition improperly and it is successful in reducing symptoms but it’s not curing the underlying condition and it progresses in the meantime. Having said that, I always tell clients that if they try a home remedy or over-the-counter medication, if the condition does not improve quickly or it returns soon after the treatment is finished, I recommend seeking veterinary help immediately.

There is no way for me to know what is going on with your cat’s eye but I can offer some thoughts. The most common reasons why an eye would discharge is because of an infection, a blocked duct that drains the tears, ocular trauma, or a hair or eyelid that is rubbing and irritating the eye’s surface. Any ocular medicine you find for humans will be pH balanced for the eye and this balance is the same for a cat’s eye, so you can use human eye drops for cats as it should not cause irritation unless there is a rare sensitivity to some ingredient in the medication. If the symptoms resolve indefinitely then that’s great, if they return I would recommend visiting your veterinarian right away and having them diagnose it properly.

A word of advice. In terms of Persian cat eye problems, it’s common for this breed to have viral infections rather than bacterial infections. Viral infections tend to improve while you’re using a treatment but return soon after the treatment finishes. A test that I find is commonly underperformed is a DNA ocular viral panel. This can identify a range of viruses to give a specific diagnosis and it can also find pseudobacteria, like mycoplasma in cats, that can be treated but it takes a longer duration of a unique treatment to be successful. I have seen many cats go their lives with this type of infection and the owners keep buying eye drops repeatedly but the condition never clears up because it wasn’t confirmed and the right treatment was never performed. Consider this test if you see this condition return or become chronic.