Kitten keeps hurting himself

ameise

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Is there any threat from my young kitten Blitz having nearly no coordination? When playing, he has a habit of running into things and hitting his head... when jumping from and to objects, he has a habit of missing and hitting his head about half the time... today, he tried to jump from my chair to my coffee table, and he hit his head clear on the edge. Can he get serious injury from this, and how can I prevent it?
 

srrh

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Not to alarm you, but my cat Fiona was exhibiting exactly the same symptoms, and it turned out that she was suffering from a degenerative eye disease and had lost a lot of her sight, including her depth perception. She could still see some things, like the light of a lser pointer, but judging distances just wasn't happening. She did end up knocking her head and developing an deep abscess in her forehead, beneath the fascia, which culminated in having surgery to install a drain.. it wasn't pretty. Fiona's eyes are somewhat cloudy (not an extreme amount), but other than that, she looks like a normal cat.

I am by NO MEANS trying to scare you or diagnose your cat with blindness, so please don't panic! I just wanted to let you know what happened in our case. Hopefully, you've just got a clumsy kitten who will grow into some coordination with time.
 

yayi

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Kittens are quite clumsy but it is part of growing up. My 5 orphan kittens were a handful to the point that I thought they would end up with head concussions and broken bones. They all did not seem to mind the tumbles, falls and bumps. They grew up to be very balanced and daring cats.

If you think Blitz is in danger of getting seriously hurt though, I would limit his play space. When you cannot keep an eye on him why not put him in a room with a cat tree, low furniture, lots of cat toys and floor cushions, no sharp edges or glass decors that might fall on him, etc.
 
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