Eye Agenesis

Hello I'm new to this forum. My boyfriend and I just adopted a 9 week old kitten. I work at an animal hospital on the Upper East Side in New York City. One of our clients came in with a stray kitten he had found. The little kitten had a huge feline herpe in his eye and the doctors were concerned the eye would have to be removed. The whole hospital was so scared that the kitty would have to be put to sleep unless someone adopted him. I was so happy and excited to adopt him. After a couple more weeks his eye looked great and the doctors are now saying that the eye can be saved and is visual! However now it is seen that my kitty has eye agenesis meaning his eye lashes are inward and rubbing against his cornea. He needs surgery to remove his eye lashes. I'm getting a big break because I work in an animal however I'm still trying to raise money for help him. Any little bit helps. We love him very much! Thank you for reading.

My kitty Smudge also had eyelid agenesis, and also had her eyelashes removed with cryosurgery. This is typically as much as she opens her eyes now:



She also had other eye issues, but the eye agenesis was the main one. She needs ointment put in her eye every day to keep them from drying out, and they get irritated easily, but otherwise she's fine.

Have you tried asking your vet for a payment plan to help deal with the costs?

I just got a new foster kitty with eyelid agenesis. This is the first time I've seen this. If you don't mind me asking, how much did the cryosurgery cost? Where did you have it done? How old was your cat when you had it done? I've been googling like crazy...saw somewhere that they could surgically create an eyelid, but that it cost somewhere around $5,000! YIKES! This kitten (mouse) is so sweet, and I would love for him to be able to keep his eyes.

I have just began to foster a male 5 week old kitten with eyelid agenesis. What did you do to help your kitten? What surgery did you get done? How much did it cost?

Thank you,

Sabrina Antonelli

president

destiny's hope cat rescue

I rescued 5 kittens and am currently fostering them. They all have eyelid agenesis and estimated cost of cryosurgery from specialist is $1000 per kitten.

Hi, I have a litter of 4 kittens and 3 of them have eye agenisis.  Our vet recommended surgery for 2 of them that had the worse case.  We took our kittens to a surgeon who was giving us a great break because she had never performed the eye correction surgery where they create a new eyelid.  (Essentially our kitties were guinnie pigs). 3 days after he surgery ad to take the kittens to my regular vet because the eyes became very infected.  They stayed at the vets for 6 days getting the eyes washed out and receiving medicines.  They also had to have fluids because they had not been eating or drinking since the surgery.  The flap of skin that was suppose to form the new eyelid stayed attached only at the corner of the eyes, so now they each have a "ball" of skin at the corner of each eye.  Needless to say I am not please since the surgery did not take.  Now I must find a ophthalmology surgeon to correct the botched surgery.  I feel so terrible for my babies.  Good luck with yours. 

we had that surgery performed on 2 of our kittens that have eye agenisis and it was a failure.  But the surgeon who did it had never done it before.  We are going to look for a ophthalmology surgeon to correct the botched surgery.  It doesn't matter what the cost, just so it saves their eyes.

Kat, Depending on where you are located, there is a great eye vet that did my 5 kittens eyes located in Seattle. Seattle Animal Eye Clinic, Dr. Thomas Sullivan, DVM. He was able to do the surgeries for $750/kitten, not sure if there were discounts because they were rescues but it was less than the $1000/kitten we were quoted at another clinic. 

Hope this info helps.

sarahp said:

My kitty Smudge also had eyelid agenesis, and also had her eyelashes removed with cryosurgery. This is typically as much as she opens her eyes now:

She also had other eye issues, but the eye agenesis was the main one. She needs ointment put in her eye every day to keep them from drying out, and they get irritated easily, but otherwise she's fine.

Have you tried asking your vet for a payment plan to help deal with the costs?

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I know this thread is old but I'm hoping you all are still out there and can help me. I recently adopted a kitten with agenesis. I've been given options of watching and seeing how she progresses, cryo or reconstructive surgery. The ophthalmologist said on a scale of 1 to 10 that she was about a 0.5, so not bad at all. Our baby Faith has 3/4 of her eyelids, so she's not as bad as some others out there. What is your experience at this point with your little ones and their agenesis?

I know this thread is old but I'm hoping you all are still out there and can help me. I recently adopted a kitten with agenesis. I've been given options of watching and seeing how she progresses, cryo or reconstructive surgery. The ophthalmologist said on a scale of 1 to 10 that she was about a 0.5, so not bad at all. Our baby Faith has 3/4 of her eyelids, so she's not as bad as some others out there. What is your experience at this point with your little ones and their agenesis?