Blind cat

My friends cat recently became blind.he strugles with walking around,falls down the stairs and bumps into walls some times he cant even see his food. Is the best thing to do really to put him down he is 18. All ideas are accepted.

Has he seen a vet yet??  if so, what did the vet say?  if not (no vet visit yet) then I think that should be first & foremost!

Most cats can adapt pretty well to a disability (deafness, blindness) - the fact that he's having so much trouble with loss of sight in just one eye leads me to believe something else, possibly neurological, is going on as well - please urge your friend to get him checked by a vet.  

I think it depends on your friend, and the cat.  18 is old, but not unheard of.  When our cat was diagnosed with CRF, the vet suggested putting her down.  We couldn't do it.  Even though Alex's health was diminishing, she still experienced a good quality of life.  She had her favorite foods, she ran to greet us at the door, she liked sleeping with us... she was content to be old.  I know that sounds odd, but I am convinced.  I cannot say that she didn't suffer... she went through a lot, I am perfectly comfortable saying that to her, it wasn't suffering, it was life as she knows it and she clung to it.  The vet told us she was going to die any day (and at some visits he would even tell us he expected her to go any hour) and she stayed with us for a little over a year longer.

jolie0216 said:

 
Has he seen a vet yet??  if so, what did the vet say?  if not (no vet visit yet) then I think that should be first & foremost!

Most cats can adapt pretty well to a disability (deafness, blindness) - the fact that he's having so much trouble with loss of sight in just one eye leads me to believe something else, possibly neurological, is going on as well - please urge your friend to get him checked by a vet.  

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I agree with this.  Most cats do adjust quite well, even elderly cats.  I've not heard of a cat becoming blind in one eye, but because he does still have sight in the other one , he should NOT be having such issues, I wouldn't think.  Something else might be going on here

now hes blind In two eyes my friend told me a month ago he had 1 blind eye but now he has 2 :, (

Well, did you take him to the Vet at all since this issue started?  Sometimes blindness in cats is caused by high blood pressure and can actually be reversed with medication, but if it's been going on now for a month, it's probably too late .

BUT, cat's do acclimate fairly well to disabilities.  What your friend needs to do is NOT change the furniture around, NOT leave cabinet doors open, things like that.  As longs as things remain in their proper places, her cat should be ok.  Our friends elderly cat went blind, and he still enjoyed a few more happy years.  He only had problems if they opened the dishwasher for loading and the cat happened to walk by and would sometimes walk into it...or if someone left their shoes in the middle of the floor.  But the cat still jumped up into their laps to be brushed, jumped up on the bed, knew right where his food and water dishes were, where his litter box was, etc.