My 9 month old Tiggy came in from playing outside earlier with a sore eye. She has a slight scuff/scratch on her fur above her eye area and the inner corner of her eye ball looked a bit pink/sore and she could only open it half way. I think she has must have scratched it on one of our twig-like plants in the garden which i saw her having a playful battle with earlier. it seemed to be bothering her because she sat for ages trying to clean the eye herself with her paw bless her.

We cleaned it up with boiling water (that we left to go cold) and it looks a little less red now so we're hoping that it will continue to get better over night but i wanted people's thoughts on seeing the vet - even if it looks ok tomorrow, should we take her to the vets asap anyway? or if she can open her eye more to it's full size should we just leave it to improve naturally?

i know it mend itself but i'm tempted to take her in anyway, not least because we're going away this week so she's going to a cattery from Weds to Sat and i'd rather she saw her own vet, rather than the cattery decide to take her to see one of theirs if the problem worsens while we're away.

Any advice gratefully received because I'm completely in love with my little ginger baby!! to the extent that (and probably much to my hubby's distress!) i would cancel our trip away in an instant if there was anything seriously wrong with tiggy, she's part of our family now

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If you just bathe with clean water no salt. See how it is in the morning. It might be a little sticky so bathe again. It should look much better by the afternoon if not just call the vets first for advise.

Aw poor girly
have you checked to see there's no foreign body still in there? by opening the eye right up under good light?
My kit had a glassy eye and I took him in (feeling over-worried as haven't had cats for about 8 years) - only to pay £23 for the privilege of pulling a hair (his sisters) out of my own cat's eye! Vet prescribed chlorampenicol and luckily I had a pretty fresh tube already which saved me a further £8 (is fine to use human eye stuff). I wouldn't like to advise you not to go into your vet if there was any sign of infection. Perhaps you could ring them in the morning and see what they say.
Assuming you haven't any chloramphenicol or similar eyedrops at home (must be within 1 month of opening) a teabag is good as an eyewash for the time being, and actually slightly kinder than water on the eyes as they are slightly acidic. You can just drip the cooled tea into the eye and use it to wipe it gently, just be careful not to use the same side twice x