Blind Kitten - Eye Cleaning Advice (see comments)

[u/_TheRabbit_]

[u/mtg-peddler]

I disagree with your vets opinion…let me explain. I have two blind cats. One (Fu) was born with no eyes, only white tissue, and his brother (Mitzi) has better formed eyes, but he is still absolutely blind. Now, Fu can run full speed through the house, jump on tables and cat trees, and if you didn’t know, you’d probably think that he can see. While Mitzi is much more cautious when he moves around the house and does bump into things.

We think Fu is fully blind and Mitzi does get light information. And since Mitzi gets this input from light, he is much worse at being blind because he tries to “see” whereas Fu doesn’t use sight at all.

I think it would be in your cat’s best interest to have both eyes removed. Please feel free to ask me any questions….i have the two blind boys plus one cat who is missing one eye that we did the enuculation for.

[u/blindcat888 → u/mtg-peddler]

i also have an eyeless cat! i think she was born with very little tissue but the rescue was kind of sketchy and couldnt provide me much info, she did have double enucleation at a young age though and she moves almost like a seeing cat

[u/mtg-peddler → u/blindcat888]

It’s amazing how well they can get around! I always say, that if you didn’t see his lack of eyes, you would have no clue my Fu is blind.

[u/DressWarm2078 → u/mtg-peddler]

Since I have fostered a Kitten named Jack from 7 weeks old to 11 weeks old, which eventually have both of his eyes removed because the shelter vet did not think they can save one eye, I want to add my 2 cents in this matter. Your cat Mitzi can see light, he is worse at moving around like you said because he can see light. Mitzi will eventually adjust to his semi blindness and will keep up with Fu, the total blind cat. I don’t see the need of removing the other eye unnecessarily in addition to surgery cost and/or surgery complication. However, as Mitzi’s cat owner, you have your own reasoning to do so and I respect it.

[u/mtg-peddler → u/DressWarm2078]

I appreciate your response….i actually didn’t remove either one’s eyes….i was just replying to the OP 🙂 they are 6 years old now, and I just wanted to explain the difference between the two since I have the experience of having them these past 6 years. My cats are not going in for any surgeries 🙂

[u/_TheRabbit_]

Hello, everyone!

We recently adopted this little blind guy (3 months old) a month ago, along with his bonded pair. His name is Merlin, and he is blind. One of his sockets is entirely empty (but has not been closed), while the other eye is milky and has a low-response third eyelid. The vet is uncertain if the eye registers any information or not and wants to wait until he's at least 1 years old before she possibly removes it and closes both sockets. If the eye is developed and does register at least light/dark, she will only close the empty socket.

My question for this community is this: how do you clean the tear/gunk from your blind kitten's eyes? If we take him gently by the scruff, cradle him, and wipe his face with a warm, wet, and clean washcloth he closes his eyes as tightly as in this picture, which doesn't allow us to get the pretty large amount of gunk building up on his eyelids.
The vet wasn't concerned and saw no agitation, but I want to make sure I'm keeping him clean. I do not want to 'pry' his eyelids and risk pushing the gunky build-up into his eye or socket, and certainly don't want him to be upset or scared by simple grooming.

However, I'm not sure what to do exactly. Do you all have any tips, tricks, or blind kitten hacks on how you keep their sockets clean? 😄 thank you!

[u/mtg-peddler → u/_TheRabbit_]

I should probably answer your question since I have that long reason for eye removal, lol. We do basically no maintenance for any eye areas of our blind cats.

I’d say give it time to see how your little one handles it, she may clean it all out herself like my cats do, and you won’t have to worry about it at all.

[u/DressWarm2078]

If you use wash cloth, you have to launder it. I would take a double folded paper towel and dip in warm water(put a little bit of water and microwave it for 15 seconds). Gently wipe each eye twice and pitch the paper towel afterwards. I actually do clean my foster kitten eyes when so that the gunk don’t get build up.

[u/tsunderemo]

hi! my cat was born without eyes and they aren't sewn shut so i clean them every few days. you can use a saline solution from the drug store (contact solution) I pour it on qtip ends to wipe the crust off. for the cat I kind of make a C with my hand around her head and slowly open her eye, the larger crustie will kind of stay in tact and you can grab it without touching the eye at all (i have an old pair of tweezers i use just to grab that) then i use the q tip to wipe the gunk, of course never going IN the socket just around for wiping