Opinions for cat's fused eye

So Chihiro is a little over a year old and when I adopted her, I was told she had an birth defect that caused her inner eyelid to fuse. Honestly, its probably the thing that won me over if we're being honest. It does seem like she can see out of it some(obviously there is some vision obstruction), and while it does sometimes have some discharge(just that eye) of the watery nature it does not seem to really bother her. She doesn't scratch at it, I think the worst she does it close it sometimes. Whenever she goes to the vet, though, they always ask me about it and give me a list of special vets that can take care of it. My question is, though, should I even do it? I haven't taken her to a special eye vet, and no one has ever said a reason aside from the fact her eyes is different. My personal belief is why put her through a surgery if it doesn't bother her now? I would hate for her to be in pain/have serious side effects from having her eye "fixed" when I haven't heard any reason aside from the fact it isn't normal. So I'm asking if anyone has any reasons why this would be a good idea to do? Or if it sounds pretty logical to not put her through that stress. Bonus, to get a visual, this is the Chihiro.

Hi and welcome to TCS!

I haven't experienced this before, but maybe another member will see this thread and have some personal input.
If Chihiro was my cat, I'd be disinclined to put her through surgery too. If it was bothering her, or if it's inevitable that this will cause some problem for her down the road, then yes, I think surgery earlier on would be a good idea. But if the concern is mainly cosmetic and she's a healthy cat and comfortable otherwise, then I wouldn't put her through the pain and stress of surgery. It would have to really improve her quality of life IMO to do it.

pushylady said:

Hi and welcome to TCS!

I haven't experienced this before, but maybe another member will see this thread and have some personal input.
If Chihiro was my cat, I'd be disinclined to put her through surgery too. If it was bothering her, or if it's inevitable that this will cause some problem for her down the road, then yes, I think surgery earlier on would be a good idea. But if the concern is mainly cosmetic and she's a healthy cat and comfortable otherwise, then I wouldn't put her through the pain and stress of surgery. It would have to really improve her quality of life IMO to do it.

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I agree, unless it starts to bother her, why do anything?

My cat Juniper has a more mild version of her eyelid fusing to her eye which happened when she had a bad eye infection from herpes. It turned into a corneal ulcer. That was the same reason I adopted her too!
My vet said they could try scraping it if it seemed to be getting worse where the growth gets larger and impedes her daily activities. But she made it clear to do nothing if it's not affecting her. My vote for your Chihiro is not to do it. My fear is it could make it worse and then you're possibly looking at eye removal is surgery goes bad. We've had June for almost 2 years now and her eye hasn't changed at all.