Recurrent conjunctivitis – are cats small dogs?

Conjunctivitis is the most common ocular disease in all species and recurrent disease frequently occurs. The licensed treatments for conjunctivitis in small animals in the UK are almost exclusively topical antibiotics and although secondary overgrowth of normal conjunctival flora occurs, primary infectious causes of conjunctivitis in the dog are uncommon. In contrast, the cause of conjunctivitis in cats is often infectious and can usually be related to a specific organism. Failure of conjunctivitis to respond to antibiotics is more likely to be because of an incorrect diagnosis rather than an incorrect choice of antibiotic.