What Causes Watery Eyes in your Cat?

Let’s say you wake up one morning and notice that your beloved kitty’s eyes look a bit teary or oddly watery. Is this reason enough to warrant an urgent visit to the veterinary office? And what exactly causes teary or watery eyes in a cat? Is the cat pawing and squinting her eyes furiously? Here’s a premise on this and more. 

What Really Causes Watery Eyes 

Truth be told, there are a number of diverse things that could be causing your cat to experience excessive tearing and watery eyes. They can be generally categorised in two – things that block the normal ebb and flow of the animal’s tears and things that are causing them to produce more than normal tears. Leading veterinarian medicine experts believe that tears will typically drain onto the nose as long as things are functioning as they should. This is actually why you tend to have a runny nose when crying hysterically. Nonetheless, the normal flow of tears could be blocked by several factors including infection, inflammation or simply the  usual shape of the kitty’s face. 

Excessive tears, on the other hand, are produced by things that cause inflammation such as viral, fungal or bacterial infection. Allergies, tumors or even hair getting accidentally into the eyes is also another common cause of a cat constantly tearing up. 

Other miscellaneous causes of watery eyes in cats include things like an injury or unintentional scratch to the iris or a stuck foreigh body such as a blade of glass or tiny piece of debris. 

Some Breeds are More Predisposed and Likely to Tear up than Others

Sometimes the excessive watering up can be a result of the general shape of the cat’s eyes and face. These are known as flat-faced or brachycephalic cats that typically have large round eyes and a small nose. The tears often tend to spill over the animal’s eye rims giving the impression of watery eyes.  

Still on this, some cats are also genetically predisposed and likely to produce more tears than your average cat. This is common in breeds such as Himalayans, Exotic shorthairs and Persian cats. 

Do Watery Eyes Warrant a Trip to the Vet? 

Excessive tearing in a cat that rarely has watery eyes could be one of the telltale signs that you should visit the veterinarian center for a quick check up just to rule out the possibility of having an undiagnosed ailment lurking behind the shadows. 

References: PetsMD, Prudent Pets