How Do I Deal with Blindness?

hayabusa

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Aurora, a baby kitten my Fiance and I found at 2 days old, has had a hard beginning in life- first off she only took a breath every 4-5 seconds when I found her, she was malnutured- just skin and bones- and ended up having a kidney infection. Well, after dealing with everything we came across, our young kitten that was pure white when we found her, but is now starting to have a very gorgeous pointed coloring, seems to be blind in one eye. I think it is because of all or just one of a few reasons:

1.) Either, she scratched that eye (She VERY often scartched at her own face,catching her tiny razor like claws on her eyelids, etc and pulling them down, or actually coming in contact with the eye itself very often. We have since filed the nails VERY gently of course and not to too much of a degree that it could be painful, but just enough that they dont seep into skin like talons. They are still very sharp though, as our attempts failed. I guess Kitten claws are just meant to be very sharp! lol)

2.) She had goopy eye at about 1.5 weeks old. We cleaned it with warm water and a cotton ball often, but she would still have it suction closed on her after a nap. So we got BNP, an eye ointment. I then read up that this BNP stuff causes allergic reactions n MANY cats and they have died due to this! Well, after reading this, I inspected her, and her lymph nodes were HUGE! So, I stopped using it (The gunk never came back, even after only using the ointment for 1.5 days) Got a vet appointment. The Lymph nods were not caused by the BNP, but by her Kidney infectin (She also had a discharge when she peed, so these sigs showed obvous to the infection) She is now on a broad spectrum antibiotic to help, and within 3 ays, the lymp nodes had disappeared, and the discharge has never been seen again. She is actually getting bigger( Get this- she was only 150 grams at 2.5 weeks old due to this kidney infection!!!!!)

3.) Maybe it was just meant to be. The third eyelid is very obvious in the eye, but it is also obvious in the other eye which she can see through. the one we suspect to be blind is a foggy blue over the pupil, and is also the side she scratches at 75% more often than the other.

My questions for you are: With such a young cat, how do you deal with this blindness? I do not mind if she is blind, it isn't causing her pain, and it was obviously meant to be. But I am wondering- How do they find the litter box? The litter box has to be in the basement, or else the dog (A Whippet) will get to it. We do have an older cat, about 10months -a year old, who is taking a little whie getting used to our new family member. Will Mojo, the older cat, take advantage of this blindness? Mojo is a very aggressive player- she fights hard but thinks it is playing (She was also hand reared from a young abandoned kitten) and became used to rough housing with our Siberian Husky who took all that Mojo could dish out.

I think that being so young, Aurora will be used to this half blindness very quick (She is only 3 weeks and 2 days old today) but what I am afrad of is her going blind in the other eye. How do you teach a cat to find its way around your house? Will she run in to things if she runs away scared from something? (She cant hide under couches, they sit flat on the ground) Maybe a cat tree would help to make her feel more secure and give her a one-eyed look around her territory when she gets older. Sorry this was so long, I am just very very VERY concerned, as I have never dealt with blindness in any animal!
 

taterbug

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Did the vet look at her eye? Did he put drops in it to check for scratches and/or abrasions? Not trying to be a smart aleck....but with her markings she will probably have light blue eyes. She is going to be a beauty,I bet!!
 

lsulover

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I would take her to the vet and just see what he says.

I do not know how to deal with blindness in cats but I do dogs.

Our beloved Sambo developed cateracts, first he just had them in one eye and then he had them in his other eye. Sambo did well, I had to keep everything where it was in our house, if we went somewheres to visit or something, he might run into a chair or something for a little while and then he would remember where everything was.

He always remembered where the door was to go outside and do his job.

It could be that the kitty will be able to see some, that is the way that Sambo was.

I would have maybe had surgery on Sambo, but there were several reasons why. First he had gotten older and he was having trouble with his heart. The second reason was that our vet told us that it was not guarenteed. (sp). But probably the main reason was Sambo would hafta spend a few nights at the hospital. All by him self. Sambo was 16 when he died, and he had never spent the night at the vets, Sambo went every where with us, or he stayed with my kids, or the neighbor came to my house to take care of him.

Sambo was like my child.

Please keep us posted on your kitty, I hope and pray that everything is gonna be ok.
 

EnzoLeya

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I'm actually a little surprised that you are worried when she is only half blind
what a good meow mommy! I wouldn't worry about one thing if I were you. We have a kitty that when she was six months old and was spayed she went blind. She's 100% blind in both eyes and you would never know she was blind if we didn't tell you. Cats are wonderful at adapting to blindness. No problems finding the litter box, I can even move it, only when I abousolutely have to, and she can find it. They have great hearing and smelling! Our kitty Leya even jumps on our bathroom sink if we turn the water on because she can hear it and judge how far away it is. She gets up there to play with the stream of water, again because of the noise.

Don't you worry about your kitty one bit! As long as the eye doesn't start looking abnormal I wouldn't see why a vet would be needed.

As for playing with others your cat can easily to that, even when 100% blind. We put a bell on our other cat Enzo, so she could always know where he is. When they play together Enzo will make all sorts of noises so she can chase and play with him. They go flying around the house, over the couches and up the walls.

Rearanging.... Not a problem either. I was told not to move anything because it would be hard for the kitty. Leya has absolutely no problems relearning where things are. If we move anything she knows it, and will walk around the house slowy and find where things are, then an hour later she will be jumping over things, running around them, and having a ball.

She jumps in bed to sleep with us and her favorite laying spot is on the couch.
 
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hayabusa

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This is excellent. I am glad that she will be able to make it around. Makes me feel a lot better. I was very worried that she was going to run in to stuff and become my other cats' prey. lol. Thank you all for the information!

No, the vet never looked at her eye, but I can clearly tell it is blind. It is a very foggy blue compared to the nice blue the other one has. It also has no sign of a pupil almost, just a fog. She also seems to always claw at that side of her face,as if she is wondering why it isn't working, ya know? Maybe she wonders why it hurts so much when she hits that one spot, but not the others, not sure.
 
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