20-day-old kitten's left eye closed for 3 days after it was open?

Question

20 days ago, my female cat gave birth to 4 kittens (she's an outdoor cat).

The kittens open their eyes in the day 14 normally,
but one of them now has an issue that wasn't there before.

One of his eyes got closed; he doesn't open it at all
and it has some brown, dried pus around it.

The picture is a bit not clear, I took it with my phone camera,
but you can notice there is something on his nose as well.

I didn't go to the vet because they are very expensive in my area - I can't afford it.

Also, sadly, there is no rescue or shelter in my city,
so at least I'm trying to understand if that is an infection or something simple so I can help it myself.

Answer 1

The best thing you could do is get all them checked by a vet. Given your situation, you should have a look at I can't afford vet treatment, what are my options?

As a first aid measure, I can recommend mixing "artificial tears" to rinse the eye. Please read here for detailed instructions.

• I would advise mixing smaller batches, but you need a precision scale to weight such a small amount of salt (0.9 grams of salt for 100 grams solution).
• If available, use pure sea salt or "fleur de sel" for the solution. The next best thing is plain (not iodized) cooking salt.
• Fill it up with sterilized water. If you don't have sterilized water, you need to dechlorinate your tap water by boiling it for 20 minutes on the stove and then letting it cool.
• You can store the solution in a jar in the fridge for up to 3 days. At the fourth day, pour away the old solution and mix a fresh batch.

To treat the eye, pour the solution over a cotton pad or folded tissue paper and gently wipe the soaked tissue over the eye. Do not put the cotton / tissue into the jar with the solution to soak it, because that way you introduce a lot of impurities like dust, bacteria and mold spores into the solution.

Important: If you treat several cats or both eyes of the same cat this way, you must use a fresh cotton pad or tissue paper for each eye, else you risk spreading the infection even more.

I have used the solution in the past for my dog and he accepted the treatment without shying away.