Ashley, our cat who is blind in one eye, went for his annual checkup with his veterinary ophthalmologist last week, and we learned he now has glaucoma in that eye, apparently a common problem when a retina is damaged.The prescription: the same eye drops a human would receive.
They made the diagnosis with a pressure check, much like my dad received. My dad suffered from a number of eye complications in his final years and I took him to quite a few specialists visits as did my cousin.
Now I'm doing it for my cat.
Ash's pressure in the blind eye was 27. When it gets into the 40s it apparently causes a good deal of discomfort and pain.
You determine the pain because the cat sleeps all the time. "I know," said the vet. "It's hard to tell with a cat since they sleep all the time anyway."
Ironically for my cats, "all the time" is when I'm awake. They get wide awake when I'm asleep, and they cease to get along with each other then also.
The drops will serve for a while. When discomfort gets severe removal of the eye will be required.
Ash's partial blindness does not seem to slow him down. He even watches some television. He's particularly fond of commodities tickers, but he finds general news crawls fascinating as well. Weather panic updates, not so much.
I've toyed with the notion of a short story, something supernatural that explores what his eyes might have seen, but the notion is still processing through clockwork cogs of my brain.
In the meantime, he likes to sit on my lap when I'm at the computer, perhaps watching the cursor to see what I'm saying about him.
8 comments:
I had a cat that only sat in my lap when I was at the computer. He would rest his head on my mouse wrist, making it hard to work. But there was that purr...so I would work around him. As I write this, Cougar is stretched across my chest, purring. So maybe this is more common than not. Maybe it's a biorhythm thing, and when computing, our heartbeat slows, perspiration level drops, and we slip into a near somnambulant awareness...one that our cats respond to.
Hmm... I think there's definitely. something worth investigating here.
Aww, poor kitty.
That's an interesting theory, Clifford. I always thought it was because cats are like kids and know when you're trying to work, so that's when they start wanting your attention. :)
You know, the old: How dare you not pay attention to ME - I'm the center of the universe, now get off that phone, step away from the computer, get out of bed and pay attention to me so I can ignore you.)
Ahhhh Shame, animals are so wonderful and when they are in pain it is so sad....good luck to you and Ashley(ps let him read this, maybe he will purr:)
I always suspected it was the attention thing, as well. But Cliff's idea seems worth considering. A cat's reasoning processes seem quite alien. Dogs think like us; cat's not so much.
Yeah, Cliff may have a good point. I was a dog person for years and Christine introduced me to cats, and I have been continuously amazed by them.
My female cat, Daisy, by the way, will make a real effort to get her head between my hand and the phone handset while I'm talking on the phone.
I have a cat, Damien, who is old...old....old...I can't imagine what he sees through his eyes, and I don't want to know.
Here's to your feline, Sid. Peace to you and your's.
Thanks, Stewart. My best to Damien as well.
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