Update on our blind cat
Oct. 26th, 2006 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurchPolly got to visit the kitty ophthalmologist last friday, where it was confirmed again: Yep, she's blind. She got petted and cooed over by everyone there, who all thought she was the sweetest cat they'd ever seen (due in large part to the fact that she let them poke and prod her and move her head around without complaint and with more than a little bit of purring). The examination itself was pretty interesting to watch... at one point, the vet was shining a narrow beam light into her eyes and I could actually see the beam reflecting back out. Very freaky!
And we've also got a cause now... high blood pressure. Apparently, it's not something that gets tested often in cats, because it takes some specialized equipment to do it right (they use a cuff on the arm, but have to put the paw (with gel on the pads) on a machine that uses ultrasound to detect the blood pressure). According the vet, there's about a 65% chance she'll regain some of her sight. And, really, considering how well she's adapted while being pretty much entirely blind, any little bit of sight should make a huge difference.
So, she's on high blood pressure meds now, which we had to pick up from a regular old pharmacy. They're a standard human medication... teeny little pills that we have to chop into quarters (NOT easy to do, even with the pill cutter we picked up). Getting her to take her medicine has proved incredibly simple... we picked up some beef flavored soft kitty snacks -- stick the itsy bitsy quarter of a pill in the middle of it and she doesn't pause long enough in her inhaling the thing to notice that she's being medicated.
The interesting thing is that we actually noticed a difference within a few hours of her first dose, which seems to be way too early to have had an effect, but what do we know? She went from spending all of her time sitting on the stairs above the entry, to following us around the house and wanting attention... and not just the "Pet me NOW" attention, but the "Play with me!" sort. We haven't seen that from her in a verrrry long time.
By Sunday, we noticed that her previously perpetually dilated eyes weren't. Dilated that is. When she glanced toward the sun, her irises actually contracted!!!! We're trying really hard not to get our hopes up too high, since she doesn't seem to be seeing any better... but it was the dilated eyes in bright light thing that alerted me to her blindness in the first place, so this seems like such a huge deal. And she's been so much perkier since she started the meds... getting a bit more involved in what we're doing. She actually sat on my lap in the living room Sunday night while we were watching television (something she hasn't done in over a year).
OTOH, she's still spending most of her time sitting on the bottom step on the stairs leading down to the entryway (which may be a bit of an improvement over her old perch in the back of the library, away from everything and everyone, because now she's in the middle of everything). After a few weeks of nearly tripping over her (blind cat + main human walkway = bad thing), we got smart and put down a cat magnet. You know how it works... you could have a huge bed that the cat likes to sit on, but if you put a washcloth on it, the cat will ALWAYS perch right there. So, we folded up a small towel and put it to the side on the bottom step, and that's pretty much where she stays now.
We go back in for a follow-up blood pressure check tomorrow, just to make sure the blood pressure meds are having the right effect, then a full-blown exam again in a month. But at this point, things really do seem to be looking good!
And we've also got a cause now... high blood pressure. Apparently, it's not something that gets tested often in cats, because it takes some specialized equipment to do it right (they use a cuff on the arm, but have to put the paw (with gel on the pads) on a machine that uses ultrasound to detect the blood pressure). According the vet, there's about a 65% chance she'll regain some of her sight. And, really, considering how well she's adapted while being pretty much entirely blind, any little bit of sight should make a huge difference.
So, she's on high blood pressure meds now, which we had to pick up from a regular old pharmacy. They're a standard human medication... teeny little pills that we have to chop into quarters (NOT easy to do, even with the pill cutter we picked up). Getting her to take her medicine has proved incredibly simple... we picked up some beef flavored soft kitty snacks -- stick the itsy bitsy quarter of a pill in the middle of it and she doesn't pause long enough in her inhaling the thing to notice that she's being medicated.
The interesting thing is that we actually noticed a difference within a few hours of her first dose, which seems to be way too early to have had an effect, but what do we know? She went from spending all of her time sitting on the stairs above the entry, to following us around the house and wanting attention... and not just the "Pet me NOW" attention, but the "Play with me!" sort. We haven't seen that from her in a verrrry long time.
By Sunday, we noticed that her previously perpetually dilated eyes weren't. Dilated that is. When she glanced toward the sun, her irises actually contracted!!!! We're trying really hard not to get our hopes up too high, since she doesn't seem to be seeing any better... but it was the dilated eyes in bright light thing that alerted me to her blindness in the first place, so this seems like such a huge deal. And she's been so much perkier since she started the meds... getting a bit more involved in what we're doing. She actually sat on my lap in the living room Sunday night while we were watching television (something she hasn't done in over a year).
OTOH, she's still spending most of her time sitting on the bottom step on the stairs leading down to the entryway (which may be a bit of an improvement over her old perch in the back of the library, away from everything and everyone, because now she's in the middle of everything). After a few weeks of nearly tripping over her (blind cat + main human walkway = bad thing), we got smart and put down a cat magnet. You know how it works... you could have a huge bed that the cat likes to sit on, but if you put a washcloth on it, the cat will ALWAYS perch right there. So, we folded up a small towel and put it to the side on the bottom step, and that's pretty much where she stays now.
We go back in for a follow-up blood pressure check tomorrow, just to make sure the blood pressure meds are having the right effect, then a full-blown exam again in a month. But at this point, things really do seem to be looking good!
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Date: 2006-10-26 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 08:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 08:43 pm (UTC)I'll still keep hoping for the eyesight, though!
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Date: 2006-10-26 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-10-27 01:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-29 03:06 pm (UTC)That's a cute idea.
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Date: 2006-11-07 09:26 pm (UTC)She's been taking blood pressure meds for over a year now, and we've had to readjust once. I don't know how well she can see, really -- her irises will respond to light, but other than some basic awareness of said she doesn't seem to be able to see. It was about six months before we ever saw any light response, though -- your cat's recovery should definitely be taken as a positive sign.
Our blind kitty gets around just fine. Chair and bed and food and litterbox, all over the house. She doesn't much like being picked up and put in a new place where she has to reorient herself, and she can get pretty grouchy with the other cats. But I think I'd be the same in her situation! As long as yours doesn't freak out because it hears you and can't see you, she should be fine.
Two things: I dunno if it'd be easier for you, but our kitty's medication comes in a liquid form. The hubby just works her mouth open and squirts the medication down her throat with a syringe. Also, we were told at the same time to make sure our cat was being hydrated. We got one of those cat fountains, which circulates and aerates water so that it stays fresher. You may want to talk to your vet, to see if that'd help your kitty.