My cat has gone blind

My poor poor beautiful Darcy has gone blind.

I noticed on Friday night her pupils were diluted, but thought maybe I had accidentally given for too much of her anti anxiety tablet. On Saturday they were still huge, and the vet said to give it a day and take her in on Sunday. On Sat night she was having trouble getting down from ds bed.

Vet said yesterday that her retinas had partially detached, probably due to high blood pressure, and it's been building up for while, as she's coping ok. She's still my happy purry girl, more growly as she doesn't know who's who.

She hates me today after taking her to the vet.

She's now on her anti anxiety tablets, blood pressure tablets and anti inflammatory drops. I just hope after all of this there's a chance she can get some of her sight back.

Thank you to those who make it this far. She seems so scared today and so so cranky. Had anyone ever experienced this? Has your cat, dog, got their sight back afterwards?? I'm glad she's physically ok, but I just want to know how this happened.

I don't have any experience with this in cats, but I'm so sorry. I hope your cat is feeling better soon.

Oh that's so sad. She'd be very confused. My old dog seems to be dealing with limited vision after being diagnosed with vestibular disease last week.

I don't have any advice, just sympathy for you and your cat. How old is she?

Oh your poor cat, that will take some adjustment. Hopefully with time she will get mostly back to her old self, even if she doesn’t get much sight back.

I'm so sorry for you. This happened to my childhood cat who grew up with me and lived to be 18. She had been going downhill in a few ways and suddenly (to us) lost her sight. She was so frightened and became very withdrawn as I think she was too scared to venture out when she couldn't see. Unfortunately she went downhill very quickly after that and we had to put her down not long after (but she had had a good innings and it wasn't unexpected). You didn't mention your cat's age so I hope she does recover and start to feel better.

We had a dog go blind suddenly due to diabetes, he was about 9 at the time. Eventually was able to get him surgery and he got partial vision back.

She's not that old, 11 Just so out of no where. I hope the vet wants to get to the bottom of it, as much as I do.

Thank you everyone

ETA, I found her microchip record, she's 11 turning 12 this year

My girl went blind at about 17, she adjusted to this but did have other health issues (arthritis, kidney problems) and went senile probably a year later. We eventually lost her to a stroke at 18 but before that, she adjusted reasonable well to being blind-she knew her way around the house and was an inside cat, so she was safe. She would howl at times, we initially thought it was because she didn’t know where she was but we now think it was due to the senility.

From recollection I thought the vet could have done something about her sight but we didn’t want to put her surgery at her age and with her other conditions. I hope there are answers for your girl.

Oh dear, our cat was blind in one eye when I was a kid (totally different reason, a neighbour shot her, she survived but her eye did not). She used to scare very easily at first and lose her balance while sitting still... she wet herself with fright doing that. But she got used to it. Though for the rest of her life was much easier to scare her if you came up on her blind side without saying anything- always make noise when approaching a blind cat She moved out of home with me when I grew up and grew into a happy old lady. Lived to 18-19. I hope your cat gets used to it and turns into a happy old lady too

Edited, blind cat not blind car!

I am so sorry to hear this. cats are incredibly resilient though and can often adapt to lots of different things. Can you restrict her space for a little while until she creates a good mind map. Try to limit how much you change or move furniture around and even avoid leaving toys or anything on the floor that may disorientate her. Hopefully she might be able to regain some vision at least, but there is no reason she can’t still have a happy life if you are committed to taking good care of her (and it sounds like you love her a lot, so of course you are)

Not sure about cats but my sister’s dog went blind a few years ago and she has adapted beautifully - people who don’t know she’s blind can’t tell unless she is in a a new place. On walks she follows my sister’s legs, she has learned the layout of her own house, my dad’s and my other sisters house! As long as you don’t move something or put a bag down in an open area she is good.

I am so sorry to hear this. cats are incredibly resilient though and can often adapt to lots of different things. Can you restrict her space for a little while until she creates a good mind map. Try to limit how much you change or move furniture around and even avoid leaving toys or anything on the floor that may disorientate her. Hopefully she might be able to regain some vision at least, but there is no reason she can’t still have a happy life if you are committed to taking good care of her (and it sounds like you love her a lot, so of course you are)

Thank you.

She seems to be finding her way around the house ok, almost walked into one of the other who was a bit, what are you doing

Kids are under strict instructions to clean up and not leave land Mines lying around. She seems to be able to see movement, but maybe she is just following the noises. She just sends so old all of a sudden

I just want to add that retinas partially detached, just don't fix themselves. They require laser surgey to stick them back. Please consider it a permanent condition unless you do surgery.

Thank you. I'm stupidly getting my hopes up after reading some vet articles where they have managed to regain some sight once the area has healed.

Surgery is unlikely to be an option. We're in canberra and would need to go to Sydney. She's always been a highly stressed cat and there's no way she'd manage a drive that long, or plane trip. I couldn't do that to her. The five minute trip to the vet has her trembling.

I don't know. I'm so scared for her. She normally goes to my mums if we ever have to go away, and I don't know if I can do that now. She does know that house though, so maybe she'd be ok. Would stress my mum out seeing her like that though, after her own cat went blind due to high blood pressure. Darcy seems to be getting around better than my mums cat did. She's navigating doorways and jumping into beds ok.

You couldn't see any of the yellow of her eye on the weekend.

Aww poor kitty. Give her some time. My old doggo has gone mostly blind and deaf, but he's adapted really well and is just like his old self (minus a few obvious things like he wont come back if I call him)

Give her some time. Right now she would have heightened anxiety, just give a it a little time. Try not to worry about her going to your mums when you go away etc, remember cats rely a lot on their sense of smell for comfort.

[mention]Bono67[/mention] have you rung the Kippax vet to see if they can do the operation? They were the only ones in the ACT who could radiate my old cat's thyroid, they may be able to do the surgery too.

Surely there's someone here who could do it? If not, there should be!

@Bono67 have you rung the Kippax vet to see if they can do the operation? They were the only ones in the ACT who could radiate my old cat's thyroid, they may be able to do the surgery too.

Surely there's someone here who could do it? If not, there should be!

Thank you for that. I'll keep it in mind to ask. I figured if anyone would do it, it would be the referral clinic. Need to try to figure out why it's happened first. Waiting for the vet to call today, but at least she came to visit me today. She very much hated me yesterday

@Bono67 have you rung the Kippax vet to see if they can do the operation? They were the only ones in the ACT who could radiate my old cat's thyroid, they may be able to do the surgery too.

Surely there's someone here who could do it? If not, there should be!

Thank you for that. I'll keep it in mind to ask. I figured if anyone would do it, it would be the referral clinic. Need to try to figure out why it's happened first. Waiting for the vet to call today, but at least she came to visit me today. She very much hated me yesterday

ETA, just had a look and it doesn't look like they do eyes. Interesting to see sandy Hume there. He used to look after our birds, only proper avian vet in canberra!

She's had two blood tests, both showing low white blood cell count, no neutrophils. Fiv or feline leukemia. But she's airways been an indoor cat, not fights or anything. Only other possibility is bone cancer

She can't possibly have fiv. I really hope that it's just some random virus and she bounces back in a couple of weeks and the eyes are just high blood pressure. She's fine otherwise, eating and acting normally. I just can't help thinking of my friend who has lung cancer and the only symptom she had was a slight cough. The only reason they found it was because she hurt her ribs and they saw it in a xray.