I had a neighbor whose outdoor cat lost an eye after a fight–they never bothered to take her to a vet, just let the infection take it (*&%$#!). She did fine without it.
We also had a beagle stray up a few years ago with the exact same problem…infection so bad that the eye had already come out, and a few toothmarks on his face to show what had caused the loss. Another neighbor and I wound up feeding him and trying to locate the owners (he’d probably been lost while hunting) and he repayed us by running off the deer that had been feeding in our gardens. Didn’t have a problem getting around at all. After a visit from the neighbor’s grandkids, involving lots of petting and playing, it was decided that he needed to come home with them.
Your cat will be fine, dearheart; just keep loving her like the good catMommy you are. And remember–no Mom is perfect, we all just care enough to wish we were.
Hi everyone! Thanks again for your wonderfully comforting words. Although that button sewing thing kinda creeped me out. :teehee:
I had a tough night last night. I cried pretty hard as I feel so guilty about not taking him in sooner than I did. Maybe we could have prevented the infection or something else. I know it doesn’t do any good to live in the land of “what if”, but I just can’t keep myself from going there. A part of me is hoping our regular vet (which we haven’t actually seen yet as I couldn’t get an appt to see him in time so we’ve taken Max to see 2 other vets that work there) will tell us something different and I know that’s not a good thing to get my hopes up but I can’t help myself. I don’t want my Max to lose his eye, even if he can’t see out of it. I just don’t want him to be in any pain. That’s first and foremost. Forgive my babbling on here, I’m just trying to hold onto anything I can to avoid this from happening.
I have an appt this Thursday with our regular vet so I’ll keep you posted as to what the next step will be…
You’re not a bad pet Momma. Max can’t look at you and say “hey Mom, my eye hurts real bad and I can’t see real well can you take a look at it?” You did what you thought he needed, it’s not like you knew he had something bad and ignored it.
I’m hoping the regular vet finds it’s something that can be fixed without losing the eye but if it needs to go I’m sure you’ll be a great nurse Momma and take care of him and spoil him. It’s probably worse on you than on him.
So sorry to hear about your kitty, but I’m sure he’ll adjust fine. One of my cats lost his leg and he moved around just fine for years after. Don’t feel guilty, you’re a great pet mom!
I know it probably doesn’t make you feel much better, but at least you’ll have it taken care of and your kitty will feel better. I don’t have a cat, but I do have a sister who is blind in one eye, and she’s doing just fine …sorry, that probably doesn’t help.
Sorry about your kitty. Poor thing! I hope the surgery is successful and once he recovers will be okay.
My only suggestion is that he should become an indoor cat if he’s not already. Having two eyes allow us to have depth perception and judge distances. Having one eye will put him at a distinct disadvantage in the out doors with general vision but also with judging distances for climbing, running, and seeing how far away a moving car is. A cat’s eyes are really important (as they are for all of us) but in proportion to their size a cat has larger eyes than we do in proportion to our size.
You nailed it right on the head. I think I’m taking it a little harder because of the way the eye doctor just threw it out at us and went on his merry little way. If he had just been a little more sensitive in the way he delivered the news it wouldn’t have stung quite as bad. At least I don’t think it would have. Yes, I’d still be shocked, but he still could have said it more gently than he did.
Yep, he is an indoor cat. Although he sure would love to be an outdoor cat! We’ve tried taking him out on a leash but all he does is eat the grass and then comes inside and pukes it up on my carpet. Why do they always puke on the carpet?! They never puke on the kitchen floor. Oy vey.
He knows his name and will come when we call him and when we come home from the store or wherever, he comes running to the door to greet us like a dog does!! :teehee: He’s the best. I’m smiling just thinking about that…
My Max will have his eye surgery in one week. Next Wednesday morning I’ll take him in and they will remove his eye. I’m still pretty upset but I’m moving on to being more angry with myself at the moment for not taking him in sooner. I guess I’ll always blame myself for that. Oh well.
I know this isn’t the end of the world for me or my Max, but it’s just harder right now for me because I’ve never had an animal without all of their body parts attached! So it’s going to take me some time to get used to seeing him with only one eye.
Say a prayer that all goes well and that it doesn’t turn out to be cancer too.
My cat had her eye removed last year. She had glaucoma and the drops did not help. They sutured the socket closed and she looked a little like Frankenkitty until the stitches came out. I think she was much happier to have all that pressure relieved. Vision was never an issue for her in that eye since she had been blind in it since kittenhood.
Don’t know if it will help, but our pekingese seemed to be in more pain when we were trying to save his eye than when we had it removed. He was up and about and almost his old self in 2 days after the surgery. It’s been 5 years and the only problem we notice is he is very tentative when crossing the threshold of the door to go out. Hang in there. I think your kitty will be just fine!! (You need to stop blaming yourself though) Prayers for you and kitty.
…sorry, that probably doesn’t help.
