- Joined
- Jul 14, 2016
- Messages
- 40
- Purraise
- 12
How awful
I know baytril from rehabbing squirrels. It's one of the few antibiotics that work for them. Interestingly, I have been refused it by vets ( told it is strong and can be dangerous) so some vets are more cautious than yours was. ' Is there any hope of your kitty regaining her sight?
About living with a blind cat: I have a little experience here - with a cat, with a dog and with myself. Cats and dogs do remarkably well without sight, and not just because they have no expectation that they will always see, the way humans do, but Im sure that plays a part. . Fully half the brain is devoted to vision, and when the eyes stop working, the brain accomodates beautifully and makes us - humans and animas - continue to "see" whatever is familiar to us.It does this by using the vast catalog of visual data recorded over the animal's lifetime, and by virtue of the fact that our brain measures everything we do repetitively that is why you don't trip while running up your own stteps but might with unfamiliar ones, and why you can go up them faster.. If that sounds impossible, let me assure you - I've "seen" it with my own eyes. I had an event called a macular pucker that caused sudden vision distortion as well as loss in one eye. It happened in a matter of seconds. For a year, I saw map lines on a wavy pebbled surface - similar to a textured shower door if a map was printed over it, though not quite as thick. Everything I looked at had this film laid over it. Gradually it went away, as my brain succeeded in erasing the perception of the lines and film. The wavyness is still a problem, but it really only affects reading - something we evolved to be able to do, so our brains designed to overcome. However, mine tried. My spelling became atrocious until I figured out that my brain was accomodating for the war in my vision by shifting everything slightly to the left, so I'd type e instead of r and j instead of k,. etc. Once I realised that was happening. my brain noted that and stopped. Aside from trying to read, these are the kinds of things your cat is experiencing - it is not just a black hole in the world of the blind - at least not in my experience nor that of sight impaired people I've known..
I had a cat that had an eye and brain injury ( climbed in a great dane's dish as a kitten). As she got older she had a lot of floaters, which startled her and caused seizures. I took her to a veterinarian opthomologist, who taught me a TON about vision, including the part about measuring I wrote above - my own opthomologists told me nothing, and so far as I could tell they did not to know themselves how the brain steps in for the eye!.That is the difference between vets and human doctors - doctors get a narrower training. the vet told me that if an animal loses their eyesight, it takes only a couple weeks for them to get their bearing and then they behave as if they can see. Well, a friend's dog spontaniously went blind one day, and it only took him ONE WEEK to be running around as he always had - never missing doorways or furniture, and running staight to the human when he was called. He had a best friend dog thathe also followed ( could have been why it was only one week), but dogs and cats use their sense of smell and hearing far bettermore than humans, and their vision far less, so it is much less of a loss for them. For further proof of this, do some serious reading on what indoor cats do if they get lost outdoors - it completely disorients them to have unfamiliar scents and sounds, to the point where they don't recognize familiar faces. My cat had more trouble than a blind cat, because she didn;t lose her sight - it became unpredictable . Who would have guessed? Also, the loss of viison in one eye takes about 6 weeks for the brain to remeasure everything so that vision seems normal again. So, far longer to adapt than with no vision at all.
It is tragic for anyone to lose their sight and I am so sad this happened to you and your cat, but I expect you will find that your cat does just fine and has a full and rewarding life - equal to what would happen to you if you lost your sense of smell - the sense we use the least.
There used to be a wonderful fb group for sightless cats. I'm sure the people there would be a good resource for you - especially those who have cats who were born sightless, because they've had no trauma to add to the loss - often it is a head injury or abuse that animals lose their sight to.
FWIW, my neighbor rescued a great dane ( not the one that snapped at my kitten) who was born deaf and with only half of an eye. Panda could see shadows with that one eye, but otherwiase lived in a world without sight or sound. She lived to a ripe old age and the only real problems she had was if she got loose. There was no way to call herr or her to see or hear familar people or dangerous cars. Luckily she was a laid back dog who liked to mosey around instead of romping, and after two puppyhood incidents it didn;t happen again. To give you an idea of what she was like to live with, if I walked across the street to visit on the curb with her owner my cats sometimes followed. Panda never knew when our gray tabby cat did this, because she was camoflauged by the tree trunks around her. But when our white cat did, Panda would become aleert and bark! The funny hting was that Panda, being albino, was all white herself, and our white cat was named Pansy, They would have made a good pair. If your cat is able to see shadows, you will want to buy toys in a different color value than your floor and furniture. the color won;t matter - how dark or light it is will, because you're looking for contrast.
Best of luck!
About living with a blind cat: I have a little experience here - with a cat, with a dog and with myself. Cats and dogs do remarkably well without sight, and not just because they have no expectation that they will always see, the way humans do, but Im sure that plays a part. . Fully half the brain is devoted to vision, and when the eyes stop working, the brain accomodates beautifully and makes us - humans and animas - continue to "see" whatever is familiar to us.It does this by using the vast catalog of visual data recorded over the animal's lifetime, and by virtue of the fact that our brain measures everything we do repetitively that is why you don't trip while running up your own stteps but might with unfamiliar ones, and why you can go up them faster.. If that sounds impossible, let me assure you - I've "seen" it with my own eyes. I had an event called a macular pucker that caused sudden vision distortion as well as loss in one eye. It happened in a matter of seconds. For a year, I saw map lines on a wavy pebbled surface - similar to a textured shower door if a map was printed over it, though not quite as thick. Everything I looked at had this film laid over it. Gradually it went away, as my brain succeeded in erasing the perception of the lines and film. The wavyness is still a problem, but it really only affects reading - something we evolved to be able to do, so our brains designed to overcome. However, mine tried. My spelling became atrocious until I figured out that my brain was accomodating for the war in my vision by shifting everything slightly to the left, so I'd type e instead of r and j instead of k,. etc. Once I realised that was happening. my brain noted that and stopped. Aside from trying to read, these are the kinds of things your cat is experiencing - it is not just a black hole in the world of the blind - at least not in my experience nor that of sight impaired people I've known..
I had a cat that had an eye and brain injury ( climbed in a great dane's dish as a kitten). As she got older she had a lot of floaters, which startled her and caused seizures. I took her to a veterinarian opthomologist, who taught me a TON about vision, including the part about measuring I wrote above - my own opthomologists told me nothing, and so far as I could tell they did not to know themselves how the brain steps in for the eye!.That is the difference between vets and human doctors - doctors get a narrower training. the vet told me that if an animal loses their eyesight, it takes only a couple weeks for them to get their bearing and then they behave as if they can see. Well, a friend's dog spontaniously went blind one day, and it only took him ONE WEEK to be running around as he always had - never missing doorways or furniture, and running staight to the human when he was called. He had a best friend dog thathe also followed ( could have been why it was only one week), but dogs and cats use their sense of smell and hearing far bettermore than humans, and their vision far less, so it is much less of a loss for them. For further proof of this, do some serious reading on what indoor cats do if they get lost outdoors - it completely disorients them to have unfamiliar scents and sounds, to the point where they don't recognize familiar faces. My cat had more trouble than a blind cat, because she didn;t lose her sight - it became unpredictable . Who would have guessed? Also, the loss of viison in one eye takes about 6 weeks for the brain to remeasure everything so that vision seems normal again. So, far longer to adapt than with no vision at all.
It is tragic for anyone to lose their sight and I am so sad this happened to you and your cat, but I expect you will find that your cat does just fine and has a full and rewarding life - equal to what would happen to you if you lost your sense of smell - the sense we use the least.
There used to be a wonderful fb group for sightless cats. I'm sure the people there would be a good resource for you - especially those who have cats who were born sightless, because they've had no trauma to add to the loss - often it is a head injury or abuse that animals lose their sight to.
FWIW, my neighbor rescued a great dane ( not the one that snapped at my kitten) who was born deaf and with only half of an eye. Panda could see shadows with that one eye, but otherwiase lived in a world without sight or sound. She lived to a ripe old age and the only real problems she had was if she got loose. There was no way to call herr or her to see or hear familar people or dangerous cars. Luckily she was a laid back dog who liked to mosey around instead of romping, and after two puppyhood incidents it didn;t happen again. To give you an idea of what she was like to live with, if I walked across the street to visit on the curb with her owner my cats sometimes followed. Panda never knew when our gray tabby cat did this, because she was camoflauged by the tree trunks around her. But when our white cat did, Panda would become aleert and bark! The funny hting was that Panda, being albino, was all white herself, and our white cat was named Pansy, They would have made a good pair. If your cat is able to see shadows, you will want to buy toys in a different color value than your floor and furniture. the color won;t matter - how dark or light it is will, because you're looking for contrast.
Best of luck!
