My cat's claw caught the white of my eye

Take the contact lens out now and keep it, and get the eye looked at today — at the first door that opens, not at the end of tomorrow.

A claw scratch across the white of the eye while you are wearing a lens is the one eye injury where "it only stings a little" and something deeper can feel identical from the sofa. The lens is the part that changes the risk: whatever was on the claw stays against the scratch, and the only way to tell a scratch from something worse is to have it examined while the eye still looks fine. Vision feeling normal right now is the reason to be seen, not a reason to wait.

1) What you have done, and the better version

The one to undo: putting the lens back in this morning. Contact solution is for cleaning lenses in their case. It is not a wash for a scratched eye, and the lens is not supposed to be back on the eye tonight. That is the single most useful change available in the next five minutes.

Do this now — about five minutes — then stop fiddling:

1. Wash hands with soap, dry them, dry the nails. No rings.
2. Take the lens out if it comes easily. Do not dig, pick at it, or chase it if it feels stuck; that is a job for a clinician with a magnifier and a light.
3. Put it in its own case with a little solution, lid closed, and write the date and the time on the case. Bring it with you — the lens is often the most useful thing a clinician can culture, and they will ask for it.
4. Rinse the eye gently with clean saline or clean lukewarm water while blinking, head tilted so the runoff goes away from the other eye, letting it flow out rather than rubbing it in. This washes off grit. It does not treat a scratch.
5. Dim the lights, or wear the sunglasses indoors. Keep hands off the eye. Note the time of the scratch on your phone.
6. Your own towel, wash hands after touching the eye or the lens, and keep the cat out of the room for now.

That is the whole home side. Everything from here is a door, and the door is the same for this kind of injury whether it stings a lot or a little.

2) Avoid list

• No lens back in — not tonight, not "just for the drive", not for the school run. Do not sleep in it.
• No drops — no leftover antibiotic drops, no steroid drops, no redness-relief drops, nothing from someone else's eye medicine. A pharmacist or the clinician decides what, if anything, goes in that eye.
• No rubbing, no pressure, no patch, no warm compress over it.
• No home-made rinses — no salt water, no boric acid, no tea.
• Do not clip the cat's claws and do not let the cat lick or rub the eye.
• No driving yourself if the eye is painful or your vision is not quite right. Ask the sibling or the elder near you, or a neighbour.
• This is not a diagnosis and it does not replace an examination by a clinician. Nothing you take is changed here. No coverage here: which drops, whether an antibiotic is needed, or how long healing takes — that belongs to whoever examines the eye.

3) Decision tree

Right now, tonight — the five steps above, five minutes. Then rest the eye.

Before bed — call the eye door *tonight*, not tomorrow morning. Say the words: *"scratched eye, contact lens wearer, the lens is out."* Ask for the first appointment today or first thing tomorrow, and ask whether the clinician does a slit-lamp examination. Keep the lens and case by your bag.

Which door, and when

• First choice, same day: an eye clinic, an optometrist with an eye casualty service, or urgent care that can actually examine an eye.
• Emergency department instead — tonight, not tomorrow — if the pain is more than a mild sting, or you cannot get a same-day eye assessment, or the eye looks red and angry across the white rather than a small mark.
• Red flags: stop the home steps and go now. Call your local emergency number now, or ask the person next to you to call it, and go straight in.

- vision blurring, greying, halos around lights, a curtain, or new floaters
- pain getting worse over a few hours, or light really starting to hurt
- a white or grey spot on the clear part of the eye, or a white layer at the bottom
- the eye looks sunken or bulges, the pupil looks oddly shaped, or there is a cut on the eyelid
- swelling spreading to the eyelid or face, moving the eye hurts, or double vision
- something still feels stuck, or the lens would not come out
- the eye is hot, you have a temperature, or you feel properly unwell
- if the claw broke the skin, or the cat is a stray or you do not know its vaccination status, say so at the door — that is a clinician's decision about prevention, not yours to settle at home.

The morning clash — this is what usually decides whether it gets seen. You cannot do the 07:45 drop-off and be at an 08:00 door with a possibly long eye wait. In this order: ask the sibling or the elder near you for the run. If nobody can, the eye goes first and the school run gets solved second — an eye is time-sensitive, a school run is not. Message work the night before, not at 07:50.

What to bring — the lens in its case, this phone for the time of the scratch, your medicines list, glasses, sunglasses. That is all.

Scripts you can screenshot

• *Booking line:* "Scratched eye this morning, I was wearing a contact lens and have taken it out. Can I be seen today, and does the clinician do a slit lamp? How long is the wait?"
• *At the door:* "A cat claw across the white of my eye this morning, I had a contact lens in, vision has not changed, mild sting. The lens is in the case. Does this need anything tonight, and what should bring me back?"
• *To the sibling or the elder:* "I have an eye appointment at eight and it may be a long wait — can you do the school run?"
• *To work:* "I have an eye appointment first thing and I may be waiting — I will message when I have been seen."

A one-pager for the door — what happened, what you did, what to ask, and the return list — is here: eye-scratch-lens-visit-sheet-d9ec40fa.pdf

What success looks like in the next 24 hours — not a promise that anything heals, just what going well looks like: the lens stays out; the eye is no more painful than it is tonight and light is no worse; no new white spot, no haze, no change in vision; and you have been seen with the lens and its case in your hand. If any of those four goes the other way, the red-flag list wins over the plan above.

One thing that changes what the clinician does: how many hours ago was the scratch, and was it a scratch only, or a bite as well?