Debbie Thill can’t help but smile as she watches Finn, a Devon rex, run from room to room or jump on any available surface in her home. The cat’s antics are amusing, but there was once a time when medical conditions kept Finn from being so active —and nearly cost him his life. 

At 6 years old, he has overcome a once-typically fatal infectious disease and an incredibly rare eye condition that needed an even rarer surgery performed in cats to treat it.   

Finn’s health troubles started when he was a kitten.

“When he was less than 2 years old, he started just having this eye drainage,” Thill recalls. “I would wipe it away, but it just kind of kept getting worse and worse. And then he would sometimes have bloody discharge out of the eyes.”

Feline herpesvirus turned out to be the culprit. It’s an incurable condition that often causes problems in the eyes of infected cats—including discharge, squinting, and corneal ulcers— and requires lifelong medical management. 

Thill splits her year between Minnesota and Florida, so Finn saw veterinarians in both states for his eye issues. An ophthalmologist in Florida prescribed medication, and Finn’s health seemed to improve somewhat.

Then one day, he had a seizure on Thill’s bed. Finn was diagnosed with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a disease caused by an infection from a mutated feline coronavirus. Finn had the “dry form” of the disease, which causes inflammation in the central nervous system and vital organs. 

Certain cat breeds, such as the Devon Rex, as well as the Abyssinian, Bengal, Birman, Himalayan, and ragdoll, are more susceptible to developing FIP.  Also at a higher risk are young cats—particularly those under 2 years old—and those living in multi-cat households. 

Until recently, nearly all cases of FIP were fatal, but new therapies have significantly improved outcomes for cats with the disease. 

“It's amazing this little boy is alive,” Thill says. “It also explained why his herpes never completely improved—because his poor immune system was shot. Miraculously, he was cured of FIP, and then things were good for three years.”

A rare diagnosis

After overcoming FIP, Finn’s medical woes still weren’t over. Next came dry eye disease. As the name implies, this condition results from an inability to produce enough tears to keep the eye lubricated and free of debris. Cats develop dry eye much less often than other species, such as dogs, but most commonly do so as a result of chronic uncontrolled feline herpesvirus infection, according to Jordan Roberts, a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist who leads the Ophthalmology Service at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center. 

“Dry eye disease presents as chronic squinting, chronic mucus discharge, and it can be so severe that those affected can develop corneal ulcers, which are very painful,” Roberts says. “It can even be vision impairing and or blinding if left untreated. It’s a quality-of-life issue for any animal or person that suffers from it.”

After numerous veterinary visits and medical therapies that did little to alleviate Finn’s issues, Thill sought help from Roberts, whose research interests include feline herpesvirus. Finn arrived at the Veterinary Medical Center in November 2025 for an evaluation. 

“Finn had all of those textbook signs,” Roberts says. “He had the discharge, he had the squinting, he had scarring on his corneas—he was just chronically uncomfortable.”

As other medical therapies had been exhausted—traditional treatments used in other species often don’t work for cats—there was one more option for Finn. It involved a surgery that Roberts notes has been performed on humans and other animals for decades but has been exceedingly rare in cats. While researching the procedure, known as parotid duct transposition (PDT), for one other previous feline patient, Roberts says she found a case study with only seven cats. 

An unusual treatment

With so little published in veterinary literature, performing the procedure was a daunting endeavor, but Roberts rose to the challenge. Her previous patient had one eye treated with the surgery, but in Finn’s case, she would be operating on both of his eyes one at a time and more than a month apart to allow him to recover between. 

The mechanics of a PDT surgery are complex, and the result is something Roberts acknowledges is…weird. 

“We reroute an opening from one of the salivary glands in the face, called the parotid salivary gland, and so instead of dumping saliva into the mouth, we move that opening and the whole duct up to secrete saliva onto the eye,” she says. “So instead of making tears, saliva bathes the surface of the eye.” 

It’s a solution that relieves chronic discomfort, but isn’t a cure-all. Recipients of this surgery need to have eye drops administered for the rest of their lives. 

“Interestingly enough, saliva has a lot of minerals in it,” Roberts notes. “That's why people get calculus buildup on our teeth. And so the animals will get mineral deposits on their eyelids and on their cornea, and so we prescribe an eye drop that dissolves that mineral.”

A new chapter

Both of Finn’s surgeries—one in November and the other in December—went well, and he continues to heal. The Thills’ other resident cat, a domestic shorthair named Tom, never left Finn’s side as he recovered from both surgeries. 

The difference in Finn’s demeanor before and after the procedures is remarkable, according to Thill. 

“During the course of his herpes, FIP, and persistent dry eye, his personality did change—he just was not the same wild cat,” she says. “Now, he’s doing so much better. He wants to be a part of everything and check everything out.”

Initially hesitant about the surgery, Thill is incredibly thankful to Roberts and the VMC team for talking her through Finn’s options and alleviating her fears about a procedure for which so little has been published. 

Additionally, she hopes Finn’s case can help raise awareness about the PDT procedure and potentially help other cats find relief from dry eye. It’s a sentiment Roberts shares. 

“I don’t think many veterinarians know the surgery is an option for cats,” she says. “Hopefully, this case can help spark initial conversations with clients about it and lead to better outcomes for these patients.”