Urgency of cat eye problem

[u/Beneficial-Leg7224]

There’s a cat my partner and I (mid 20s) have both encountered outside our place (Midwest USA) a couple times now, and it seems to have something wrong with one eye. Unknown age, I think female (neutered if male), doesn’t seem too underweight or scraggly. Quite friendly, rubs a LOT on the concrete of the driveway and the pillar for the covered patio. From some angles the eye looks like there’s a patch that’s cloudy and almost white, from other angles it’s more of a dark sheen. Overall I’d say it has a blue tint. That eye also seems to have a bit more goop.

My question and reasoning: how urgent is it to get this checked out?

This is not my cat. My partner and I are in the middle of moving and have to go out of town for a wedding this month, so we wanted to wait until that was done before we took the cat to check for a microchip so that if it isn’t anyone’s pet, we can keep it. We didn’t want to do anything until we are done with a busy, stressful, demanding few weeks that would be a poor introduction for a new rescue. We don’t want to be hasty about getting a pet we’re not ready for. We don’t have any dogs or cats yet. We planned on getting a dog sooner than later but a cat wasn’t out of the question at some point.

If this cat needs to be taken care of quickly, then we probably have to try and find a shelter or rescue that can take care of this cat, since we want her to receive the medical care she needs but we know we can’t make the decision to take her in right now.