Cat has strange eye infection

Question
Hello. Several years ago (around 1999 or 2000) I found a pair of kittens in the forest by my home. They seemed abandoned, so my family took them in. The veterinarian's told us that think the kittens were inbreds. One of the kittens is small; she looks like she's a very young cat, but she's 10! She has a strange condition where a crusty black mucus builds up around her eyes. We've tried using various medications but none of them have stopped the issue. We can clean the "gunk" off, but after about a day it reappears. She seems to try to clean it off herself, and you can easily find little pieces of hard black encrustations lying around in various places. The vet's told us she is blind in her right eye, and both eyes look weird. The pupils don't seem slit-shaped, but rather large and oval; they almost take up the whole eye! I'm wondering if this is all caused by idiosyncratic mutations due to the inbreeding (if that is indeed what happened). Any thoughts?

Answer
Hi Josiah,

Is your cat a long hair type of cat? They are prone to a condition called dirty face syndrome. There isn't much you can do about it but just wash the face with warm water. I have one cat who has it and I use a flea comb around the eyes. It seems to remove the black gunk really easy and doesn't bother him. As for the eye shape, I would need to see a picture to let you know what I think about that. Good luck.

Ciao, Karen