Cat with watery eyes and inflamed third eyelids

[ShyPussyCat]

Any advice welcome. My cat came back from a short cattery stay yesterday; about an hour ago I noticed his eyes are watering; there is some white mucus and his third eyelids are visible and a pink colour. He seems reluctant to open his eyes fully. He has no other symptoms; he is not sneezing and will take food, but he does seem quiet and not himself. He is washing his face more often but not rubbing his head. My other cat who shared his cattery pen seems fine

Obviously I will be taking him to the vet; but should I take him to the emergency vet tomorrow (Sunday) which is about an hour's drive away (he will hate that) or will my local vet on Monday be OK? I am worried about long-term damage to his eyes if I wait, but I don't want to put him through a long car journey if it isn't necessary.

I have been wiping away the mucus with clean tissues; is there anything else I should be doing in the meantime?

Thank you for any advice you can offer.

I forgot to add, he is fully vaccinated and is not a brachycephalic breed; he is a standard short-haired rescue moggy aged approx 4.

Can you clean his eyes with some cooled boiled water and a cotton wool pad. That's what I do with my Persians when their eyes are snotty. I also give them optrex drops if they are dry and a bit inflamed looking. Of OTC counter chloramphenicol if they have conjunctivitis. (Do not tell the pharmacist it's for a cat) I bought my own when I realised the vets just give out human stuff.

Thank you, Toddler, I will try that - anything to keep him comfortable. Fortunately he is quite docile (with me, anyway) so he's been letting me wipe it with tissues.

I'm wondering if it could be an allergy, as if it was an infection/virus I would have expected both my cats to come down with it. When he came home yesterday he did his usual thing of going all round the house rolling and rubbing himself against the furniture; I wonder if he could have rubbed against something that has irritated him.

I've wiped his eyes with the cold water that was left in the kettle (we are in a soft water area so no limescale to worry about); I'll boil some more up to cool. He does seem to be opening his eyes a bit wider now so hopefully that means he is in less discomfort; thank you for the tip, Toddler.

Update: the swelling has gone down and he's opening his eyes properly. They are still watery and he's washing the right one a lot, but he looks much better and is wandering about. Really crossing fingers that this was just an irritation rather than an infection. I will keep on bathing with sterile water as that definitely seems to have helped.

Further update - he seems totally normal this morning! Very strange. I will be keeping a close eye on him, but it looks as though he must have come into contact with something that irritated him. My husband cooked a curry yesterday so I wonder if he might have got chilli residue on, say, his sleeve, and the cat brushed against it. It's all I can think of as nothing else in the house has changed.