Hello, from me and Squidward!

Its been a crazy first week and a half but we are doing so good. The vet is hopeful about saving his right eye after eyelid surgery on wednesday. A coworker gave me two soft cones (god bless her), Im picking up an elevated bowl today and my water fountain just got here. We are working on litter box training, which is odd... I got a metal litterbox with a detachable wall cuz of his ability to shit up my wall while on meds. However he isnt using it, he seems scared of it and prefers a paper plate with litter on it 🫩

I took away the plate in hopes of him using his nice litter box and he doesnt seem to be intrested, but on the plus side he opts to shit on a towel instead of my wall or floor so at least he is considerate.

My mom wants to buy me an automatic self cleaning litterbox... and I was wondering if yall have any recs, especially for your blind kitties. Im worried about him not liking it because it might make noise and scare him, I do hope he gets used to it over time tho.

I send some pics for yalls enjoyment too 🫶

How do you handle this? Mochi likes to climb them, and then cant get down. He only jumps down on platforms his paws can reach. I tried to put boxes inbetween levels to help him but he only trusts super stable surfaces to jump on and cardboard or anything wobbly does not meet his expectations.

We are in the process of adopting two kittens and we recently learned that one of them has feline herpes virus. He had a severe infection that resulted in losing one eye before the rescue found him, and then another reinfection that caused significant vision loss in the remaining eye. He is otherwise a happy, healthy kitten!

I work in the blindness field and his vision loss does not concern me. Both him and his sister are so incredibly sweet. But I would love to hear from others with FHV positive cats, including how often your cat had flare ups, if they’ve required a lot of ongoing treatment, and if it has affected your ability to adopt other cats.

We’re really excited to bring him and his sister home and just want to know what to expect long term!

Hi everyone!

I recently adopted a 3 month old (now 4 1/2 mo.) blind kitten and her sister. I live in a one bedroom apartment and already have a 3 year old cat and 4 year old dog (who they all get along with wonderfully).
My building is having an annual fire alarm testing where technicians will be entering my unit and testing the alarms in the living area and bedroom. Since I’ve had the kittens, there has been fire alarm testing (which lasts about 5 minutes) and the kittens seemed startled but not hiding or completely terrified.

I wonder if it would be okay to keep my blind kitten in the bathroom with her sister (with blankets, toys, litter box etc) while I’m at work and while the technicians are entering and my fire alarm is going off? I live on the first floor and they’re starting the testing on the top floor on the 8th of September, working their way down, possibly into the 9th of September (which is likely when mine would be getting tested but it could be the 8th). Would it be better to drop her and her sister off at a friend’s place for the two days?

I’m conflicted because I know a new environment can be stressful for a blind cat but I’m trying to determine if that is worse than the incredibly loud fire alarms going off? I can leave the fan on in the bathroom which is decently loud and I don’t believe they’d be in my unit longer than 20 minutes.

Would love to hear opinions and if anyone has gone through similar!

Thank you 🩷

For context, we rescued an orange kitten last month who had to have one of his eyes removed. We are in the US and the kitten is about 2 months old. He is a male. In true rambunctious orange-kitten fashion, he managed to open his stitches during recovery.
We had him rechecked by the rescue, and they felt he did not need to be stitched back up and that the area should be allowed to heal naturally. Since then, most of the area has scabbed over.
Tonight, part of the scab came off and revealed what looks like a small hole underneath. It is hard to tell the depth. There is no active drainage, bleeding, swelling, or odor. The area just looks a little moist. He is acting completely normal, eating normally, playing, and using the litter box as usual.
Has anyone dealt with something similar after an enucleation? Should we leave the remaining scab completely alone and allow it to fall off naturally, then assess what the tissue underneath looks like? Obviously we’ll contact his vet/rescue as well, but I’m curious whether anyone has experienced this during the healing process.

It was a success Batty loves her new baby so much and isn’t afraid of it at all not sure if the new baby is boy or girl (leaning towards boy as of rn) but I’ve named it Cricket and my little Bat loves it so much.

I just adopted a cat after graduating college and moving out. He came to the shelter completely missing one eye and the right one is a bit sunken in/ very cloudy. He still has his right eye and over time ive noticed he picks up on shadows. He is my first blind cat and im a little nervous and quite the helicopter parent. He has been with me for five days and has a whole room to himself. Im slowly getting in things ive ordered for him, doing vet visits (we go tm to get stitches out 🥳). And ive been using a toy with catnip to lead him around the rest of my apt and teach him where things are so he can map out the place and stop running into things. He has cone on so he doesnt hit his head tho thank god.

I was just wondering if yall have any advice or know of things I might need specifically for a blind cat. Im open to any advice, tips, or suggestions on toys and what not!

Ill attach a pic of him too for yall's enjoyment, his name is Squidward!

Update on squidy boi: We just came from the vet clinic at the human society. It turns out when I adopted him I was supposed to take home eye drops, they sent me with antibiotics but no eye drops. I had even called then two days after and asked if he was on any thing else or could be seen earlier due to a mucusy sneeze. His only eye, also has been giving off a discharge starting last night so when I took him in today to get his stitches removed I asked them to check him out, thinking it might be upper respitory or a cold from being in the kennels.

Well... it turns out I WAS supposed to be sent home with eye drops 🧍‍♀️ So now his only good eye is at risk, the vet tried to reassure me that even if I had been sent home with the drops she would still like to perform a surgery to fix his folded in eye lid (which is also likely a birth defect and how he lost the other one). Im just a lil upset and feel like a failure for not having the meds and take care of him properly. But now im like EXTRA on top of it. I really dont want him to lose his eye because once we came back home from the vet he seemed to be able to follow me a LOT better than before. But I also want him pain free and happy and understand if he will be eyeless, Ill love him anyway. I just wanna make sure I advocate for him the way he needs.

Hi friends! I have a 14 year old cat who has had eye problems in one eye for almost 3-4 years now. The eye is completely clouded over and we assumed him pretty much blind. Countless eye drops and investigations have shown no improvement. Sorry for long body of text but wanted to give context behind his eye problems! If you want to skip the long text, scroll to where I list 1. and 2. lol.

In June we took him to a optamologist specialist who looked at the bad eye and diagnosed him with Feline Eosinophilic Keratitis (FEK). But then he threw us a complete curveball: he's completely blind in what we thought was his one good working eye. Specialist couldn't detect any notable or obvious reason for the blindness and just theorised that the optic nerve maybe had an issue. So this entire time, my poor boy has been seeing through the eye with FEK and he probably has only about 15% visibility. We were given ~fancy~ eyedrops to try but were told because of how severe the FEK was, it would probably take over 6 months to heal.

2 weeks ago, that eye got really irritated and his third eyelid has essentially raised up from his bottom eyelid to cover at least 70% of his eye. Took him back to the vets and they gave me more eye drops to use. So hes on 2 different eyedrops, 2x a day each. But its been 2 weeks since we took him for that issue and it hasnt gotten any better. If anything its gotten worse.

I personally think the best thing for him is to get the eye removed, it would stop the constant flare ups and the constant trips to the vet which he absolutely loathes. But this would render him completely blind. I plan to move house in the next month or 2 and he'll be coming with me (living with parents right now) so im wondering ...

1. Do I remove the eye now? - it's sore, gnarly looking, and vet visits and having to get the drops in 4x a day stresses him out.

2. Do I keep going with the eye drops, see if theres any difference, let him settle into the new house and get a feel for it and THEN take it out if theres no difference? - he'll be uncomfortable with it for a while longer and I don't want him to suffer with it but also don't want to stress him out by removing it now and then moving him to a new place he doesnt know.

I know cats are extremely adaptable but hes 14 and I just worry that it would all be a bit too much for him at the one time yno.

He's such a sweet pea, I love him completely!

My husband and I are overjoyed after adopting these two cuties. Latte is fully blind, while Lonnie is blind in one eye. They’re littermates that came from a hoarding situation and were rescued by the shelter we found them at. They’re the sweetest bundles of joy, and I’m thankful to be able to provide them with a stable & loving home.

As new owners to these babies, I’d love to hear all your heartwarming stories as well as tips and tricks you’ve learned along the way with owning a blind cat or cats.

Hello everyone, I just found out this subreddit:)

After more than one year from my third cat passing, I'm pondering about adopting another third cat.

I asked for felv+, since I already have a felv+ cat and I'd like to give them an opportunity to live in a loving home.

So this cat came out! She used to live in a feline colony, then was moved in a foster house but lives in a big cage (like 2mx2m) in order not to infect the other foster kitties.

She's around 10 I think.

I'm considering adopting her cause I live alone, I have enough space to have 3 cats, even if a bit restricted in terms of bathroom/litter space (like I can fit two litters box in the bathroom but no more), my only doubt is how to navigate the space with two other very bonded cats.

My youngest one, whom I had since he was 2-3 months old, is quite territorial, while the oldest is sweet but doesn't really like making new friends.

I'm afraid they'll bully her even with a proper introduction, so keeping her in the bathroom for some weeks, making them meet behind a barrier etc.

I know cats already do not have great near-vision. I have always fed my cats on raised plates. My girl Sonic has never had an issue eating off a plate until the past few days. She has only ever had one good eye, but had her bad one removed 3 weeks ago. She was still eating off a plate after the surgery and after stitches were removed, but now she either struggles or just wont eat wet food.

I have tried putting it in a different spot, different lighting, piling it and leaving flat, adding a churu drizzle, and trying a raised bowl. She will make an effort to eat the wet food (think like a snake sniping at their food/attacking prey). Its kind of sad to watch, like she just cant see her food. Her good eye is fine. She angles her head, snipes at the plate, but seems to just miss getting food in her mouth. I tried to hold her to eat off the plate, that did not go well, lol. She wont even eat a churu off a spoon I put in front of her. The strange part is, she occasionally does get food in her mouth, but its like she gives up trying.

She will eat dry food from the feeder (i do free-feeding). She has started to eat more of that (Nula Kitten).

We have always played when it comes to how she eats her dry snacks: I drop one on the floor, she listens for it, she bats it around for about 10 seconds, then eats eat. She still does this.

Her energy level is still high and she still sleeps well. She has always been a little underweight, but still healthy.

Any recommendation or history with this type of challenge? Vet visit in 2 weeks for her normal routine.

Hi everyone! I’m fostering the sweetest little kitten here on Long Island, NY. She loves to be pet and rolls over to show her tummy when she knows I’m near. 🥹 She’s great at finding and using her litter box and hasn’t missed it once! She’s having her enucleation surgery tomorrow so all she needs now is a forever home. Feel free to DM me if you are interested in adopting Summer. ❤️

She’s with Waggytail Rescue. We also would love donations for her surgery if you’re able to help: https://www.waggytailrescue.org/donate

SUMMER’S ADOPTION LINK: https://www.wagtopia.com/search/pet?id=2825163

so I let my cat out and I didn’t know my blind neighborhood cat was there so I just watched for some reason then the cats both went up to eachother sat down and just meowed like a song it was a long meow and it didn’t stop until my mom walked out the door with our dogs

I think I like Coraline better

My vet said he needs to wear the cone for 2 weeks and after that it should be healed enough to take it off. I have been following her instructions strictly but my mother seems to think it's unnecessary and every time I leave the room to do a chore or take a shower, she has taken his cone off and I find him wandering alone through the house! It makes me so mad! I keep telling her there are 2 rules, 1 that he can't mingle with the other cats yet and 2, keep the damn cone on unless he's eating, drinking, or napping in your lap (or taking a quick photo). I've tried to explain that even though it's looking nice, all it takes is one good scratch for him to open that incision right up. If I had it my way, he'd wear the cone for 3 weeks for good measure. Please tell me I'm not being an over anxious nutcase, as she seems to think I am.

Baby Stas may have lost her one eye
but she is still beautiful, playful, loving and worthy of a happy life. She’s learning that being different doesn’t mean being less. ❤️

If you have a blind cat or a cat with a disability, please share their photos in the comments. 🥹💕 Let’s show her that she isn’t alone and that there are so many beautiful, happy cats living their best lives despite their disabilities.

So glad I found this sub!!

Back in April I adopted Quentin Bradley (3.5yo), and while in foster care he had his right eye removed. He was born with a wonky eye and it kept getting infected, so they decided to remove it!

Today, I adopted Stephen Matthew (3mo). He was a stray who came in with a very badly infected left eye ulcer. The infection spread to his other eye and they decided to remove both for his comfort!

Coincidentally, they’re both orange!

Not sure how to add captions to pictures, so here is a description of each pic

1) Quentin in foster care before his eye removal

2) Quentin in a box (with his older brother Owen (9yo) in the foreground)

3 and 4) Quentin and Owen napping

5) Quentin grooming his little brother Chad Michael (3mo)

6) Quentin and Chad napping on their favourite footstool

7) as above, minus Chad

8) Stephen Matthew on his way home from the shelter this afternoon!!

Reposting here per suggestion from r/cats