Bonbon Eye Surgery - Take 2

Bonbon, better known as "Bonnie", hasn't had the best of luck with falling into a bath of bleach as a kitten, getting stung by a wasp, a bee, having a run in with a whitetail spider, having stubborn baby teeth, an injured elbow and now her biggest challenge is a spot of flu, Feline Herpes virus. She is our problem child, but that's just it... she is our child.
Look at that blue-eyed princess <3

Most of you have been following her story on Facebook and know her journey since she first developed the corneal ulcer in her left eye and had the surgery then. Sadly, she urgently needs another operation in the other eye. This isn’t something we would usually ask for but unfortunately our funds are exhausted and she is uncomfortable and in pain.

For those who know Bonnie’s story, skip to the last paragraph to see how you can help us. Otherwise, if you would like a read, here is Bonnie’s journey and fight against FHV so far over the last three months:
When it all began...
 
Bonnie is only 2.5 years old and over the past year or so, she has had a few sniffs and sneezes but nothing too extreme to validate testing. We had our suspicions and managed her symptoms. She was diagnosed on the 10 September this year when she developed a geographic corneal ulcer in her LEFT eye. We started immediately with Flamciclovir antiviral tablets twice a day, and Chlorex antibiotic eye drops and meloxicam for pain relief. The ulcer showed some improvement and then got worse and she developed uveitis in the eye, a painful, damaging condition where the iris is inflamed.

We went to see an eye specialist immediately as an emergency and increased the Flamciclovir to three times a day and changed the Chlorex to Ocuflox eye drops, plus the addition of daily Atropine to treat the uveitis. We had to stop the meloxicam as she had started vomiting practically every day and we started buprenorphine instead.

The ulcer decreased in size and came back with a vengeance. It was bigger than before and had gone into sequestrum and was necrotic. Surgery was our only option, and she had a superficial keratectomy on 1 October, where they removed the top layer from her cornea. She was healing well, however her ulcer returned on the 12 October. At this visit we were able to stop the atropine but it was noted that she had also developed Glaucoma in her RIGHT eye (the other eye).
Being a good patient and waiting for my medicine.

After some research, we doubled her antiviral dose and started Apoft in the right eye for the glaucoma. On the 29 October the ulcer had gone from two thirds of her eye to but a pin size and her glaucoma was under control with treatment. We were hoping to stop treatment the following week, unfortunately at her checkup on the 2 November, we found that not only was there a new ulcer in her LEFT eye that was healing so well, but there was also an ulcer in her RIGHT eye that was covering the entire cornea.

It's back!

We stopped all medication, except her glaucoma drops in an attempt to reduce any stress. We flooded the house with the smell of Feliway and started adding lysine and Zylkene to her food. We had Ganciclovir eye drops compounded for her, which we administer twice a day in both eyes. She was doing well, she started playing again, eating again (without being handfed), jumping onto my shoulder again for shoulder rides and for unknown reasons… she had a flareup.


The necrotic area (black spot)

The ulcer in the left eye has now healed, with some ulceration on her third eyelid but that’s normal with Herpes cases, however the ulcer in her right eye has gone into sequestrum and is necrotic and affecting the tissue of the eye beyond the cornea. There is no other option forward without surgery, as this will not heal by itself, but only worsen. This three-month emotional rollercoaster has had quite a toll on Bonnie and on us… No amount of words or photos can express what Bonnie means to us, nor describe her character and personality. She is the quirkiest, craziest dare devil, bouncy ninja that is the most loving and cuddliest kitty you could meet. She's her own little person and she has so much more to teach us, like how she managed to get up onto the shower rail or that shelf I can't reach... we want to give her that opportunity. We just want our blue-eyed princess back to her bouncing ninja kitty self. We would greatly appreciate any help to achieve this, no donation is too small and everything adds up.

Thank you for reading Bonnie's story and sharing her journey with us.