My Cat Has Gone Blind Overnight, Anybody Had This Before?

[Custom24]

Beautiful cat. You gave her many happy years.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Thanks guys

 

[deejay2164]

Just wanted to add a little something here. I am Dave from The UK. I had 2 cats.....a brother and sister. December last year the brother went blind and deaf pretty well overnight. He was showing signs of being senile. He was my best buddy and I was devastated that I had to put him asleep after vets advice. His sister who has been less of a medical pain has been a picture of health. The loss of my boy encouraged me to bring in two new kittens who are mad but divine! The sister was not too keen at first but warmed to them after a while. I keep them apart when I am not here to give the sister a bit of space and chill time. Yesterday I went to work and all was well. I came home in the evening and again all seemed well.....but the sister during those 10 hours at work had become blind. Was a total shock! I gave her a light test but saw no reaction and she was bumping into things was looked totally lost. My wife and I were upset as we thought we were going to have to put her to sleep. We went to the vets today fearing the worse. The vet informed us that these things do happen and it is not uncommon! He did a test on her and found her heart and bloods were actually very good for a cat who was 18 1/2 yrs old but did not she had a bad tooth. He gave her an injection which was an anti inflamitory and steroid based jab. We have since got her back home and she has regained her appetite. It does look as tho she has become totally blind as she bumps into things but we are keeping her food water and poop trays in the same place and will only let her outside if we are here and we will go out with her. All I can say is we will do our best to cope as she is a fighter and is not finished with life! Tho she is blind she still gives the impression of wanting to go on. Although her days are numbered we will do our very best for her and make her final days as enjoyable as possible. Who knows....she might still be around in a years time as she seems to be able to hear stuff and can still move around in comfort. Finally I just wanted to post this in case someone else goes through what we have gone through.....take your pet to the vet and do not leave it for a few days. Time is vital! Do what is best for your pet....not what is best for you!! That is what we are doing. We put her brother...my best mate to sleep because he had lost all quality of life.....I did not want to do it.....but I really had no choice! With his sister I decided to go on as she still has some quality.....look after your pets and I hope this post will help someone out there....thanx Dave.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Hope your cat is ok Deejay. I think with my cat it was something brain related as it totally lost control of everything in the end. Hopefully yours will last a good bit longer than mine did with her condition

 

[Globalti]

I nearly killed our prize Tonkinese cat when I was teenager.... spotted a flea on him so grabbed a can of household insecticide, covered his head with a towel and gave him a dousing. A couple of minutes later he was lying on his side, panting and foaming at the mouth. Luckily he recovered before my parents came home.

I won't be doing any DIY stuff on our present cats.

 

[deejay2164]

A quick update on my girl....there has been some slight improvement.....I think mainly due to confidence and being able to find things.....guessing she is mapping stuff in her head....tho drinking plenty, she has been eating well but like I said we will treat it a day at a time!.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

.tho drinking plenty, .

That's one thing I noticed about my cats when they got older. If you put water out when they were younger and they were eating wet food they never touched it. My other cat Tom whom died in October 2012 started drinking loads of water 3 years before he died, I took him to the vets and he had chronic renal failure (kidney failure) he was on medication (Fortekor) and it worked well until it finally caught up with him, he was just over 15. The cat that is the subject of this thread started drinking water (nowhere near as much as Tom) in her last few months. I don't know what you feed your cats, if it is a dry food I would guess that cats do actually drink water. With my cats it was old age/declining health when they started to drink it using wet food.

 

[deejay2164]

Hello again.....sad news I am afraid as my little girl sadly passed away. We took her to the vet two days ago and he suggested we took her back today to have a tooth out and a bit of an MOT. Despite coping with her blindness and still eating well her blood pressure was high and kidneys were starting to pack up! He gave her treatment and all seemed well......he was about to ring us to say all had gone well when she had a massive heart attack and despite efforts to revive her she was gone. I feel so sad after losing her brother just 6 weeks ago, but despite not showing any signs of pain, I am sure she was really struggling. She put up one hell of a fight for such a small cat. At 18 1/2 she really had a great life and she gave us pleasure as well in return. We really will miss her RIP my little Pushkin

 

[buggi]

my sister is a vet nurse and she says often people put their animals through an awful lot because they can't bear to let them go. One girl had spend £3k on her cat and my sister said if she saw how much the cat had to go through between dropping him off and picking him up she would be mortified. my sister tries to be very blunt on the records but the woman doesn't want to hear it. All i can say is, when the end is coming, explore deeply and honestly with the vet what the animal is going to go through and do your best for the animal not for yourself. Give them a good life and then go with them on the difficult journey and don't delay that journey because it hurts, when you know deep down it is inevitable.

Sometmes i don't think vets are completely up front and they will keep giving you alternatives which they know don't really work. i think this is because they are duty bound to do this. However, ask the question. Ask them if this is the best thing for your animal. This is what i do, and often the look on their face says it all. Both me and my vet agree that just because you can doesn't always mean you should. She knows i expect her to do the best for my pets even if that hurts me. And yes it hurts to face it, but i always say that those people it hurts the most are the ones who have done their best by their pet, because the more you invest the harder it is to part. it's the price we pay for the investment and love we give unfortunately, so you should never feel guilty. Feel the love, and feel the loss, but don't feel guilty.