Why is my cats eyes weeping?

Question
We have a kitten who survived his siblings because he was the first to accept canned food over mother's milk which,unknown to us,was being poisoned by a neighbor in the area.  Anyay, to make a long story short, this kitty was to be adopted by a friend who took him to a vet then asked us to continue to take care of him for 10 days while he was treated with an ointment for an eye irritation.  The reason she is asked is because she was told by the vet that he is contagious to her other cat.  So, we happily took him in because we had been caring for him since he was 5 1/2 weeks when he lost his mother and sibilings.  Again, to cut to the chase, we were told he had conjunctivitis and we were given an ointment which we administered for ten days.  After the ten days, he did not get better.  However, we were in the process of adopting another kitten to replace the pride that we lost and we brought the new kitty in our home with the other kitty.  Anyway, after about two weeks, he is now having difficulty with one of his eyes weeping and being "glued" shut with the "gook" from his eye.  We will be calling the vet on Monday to get an appointment for our new kitty who we have named Cotton because he is white (with black spots) and soft like cotton(the other kitty is Casper).  But I digress, what else besides conjunctivitis could this be and what else could we do to help our kitties?  So far, it appears we will be keeping Casper because our friend does not want the expense and responsibility of a "sick" cat.  We do not have vast monetary resources at this time but do want to help as much as possible.  I have done some research on the net (hence, why I am here) but would like a some more precise direction.  Thanks you for your help and I hope to hear from you soon.

Enjoy your now,
Traci

Answer
Hi Traci.  It might be that the eye ointment wasn't the right one for the infection.  There are several, each with different active ingredients, and some work better than others in certain cases.  So I'd start off with asking the vet if it would be worthwhile to try a different ointment, or perhaps a drop.

However, two upper respiratory viruses, feline calici virus and feline herpes virus, often cause eye problems.  Since they're viral, they're not going to respond to any antibiotics.  Really, the best you can do is to continue to treat with an antibiotic eye ointment to prevent secondary bacterial infections, and just keep the kitties away from other cats.  This is both to prevent them from spreading the disease to others and to keep others from spreading other diseases to them.  Keep stress at a minimum, and eventually, most cats will recover from the viruses, though the virus itself may stay in the body and flare up from time to time.

Feline herpes especially can cause permanent eye damage.  It can cause corneal ulcers that don't heal properly and leave the eye weak.  It can cause conjunctival adhesions to the eyelid.  Another eye condition called keratitis can occur.  Warping of the tear duct is common and can result in chronic discharge.  So there is a possibility that this eye issue may end up being a chronic battle.  

In serious cases, the best thing to do may be to remove the eye altogether.  It's not the most aesthetically pleasing thing, but it does save the cat a lot of pain and will save you in medical bills in the longrun.  Certainly, this is a long way off, but do keep your mind open to it if the vet feels they eye is no longer functioning and that chances of healing it are low.  I had one of my cats' eyes removed, and she felt SO much better after it was done.  Her eye pain was causing a constant migraine.