And how is that Leslie??????

Joan

PLZ - REREAD my original posting!  My cat Shana has been taken care of
by an excellent vet the other day!  I am looking for other peoples
experiences of their cat becoming blind at a late stage in life & what
they noticed about their behavior or any suggestions.  I have found
suggestions on some on other sites, but I figured I'd check here also.

AGAIN, Shana has SEEN the vet!  We know what happened, all tests were
taken, xrays & whatever else you may suggest.

Regards,
Joan

Camilla wrote:

I responded to you in the original thread you started, and talked about
what happened with my cat. I think you may need to face a hard reality.
Your cat has stopped eating becuse the cancer has obviously progressed
to a point where it is *too painful* for him to eat despite the
"palliative care" you're giving him. Despite the fact that he is active
in other ways, you need to start considering if it is fair to allow this
to continue when he is in so much pain he can't eat and will start to
lose weight and likely develop hepatic lipidosis.

I will reiterate here that my cat Natasha was active and normal in every
other way, too, but seeing the cancer and how it ravaged her throat made
it clear that pain control was not enough and forcing her to live that
way would be cruel. I will also reiterate that I am not one to suggest
euthanasia until all reasonable options have been tried, but I am also
aware that sometimes hard decisions have to be made and things don't go
the way we want them to or end the way we want them to.

I truly sympathize with you and have been there myself, and I think part
of the reason you're posting here is because you are afraid of or
already know what your vet would say. If anything, you should bring your
cat back to the vet and ask them for an assessment of how bad the cancer
is, and what they would *honestly* do if he was their cat.

Megan

                                   

My cat was given cyproheptadine/Periactin: it worked quite well.  It's an
antihistamine for humans, but acts as an appetite stimulant for cats.

Cathy

Hi Camilla,

I was given Cyproheptadine for the appetite.  But I don't see anything
happening.  What are you doing for the eating?  I got from the vet a
syringe - 30 ml & I use that.  It's what they use also.  I'll probably
call the vet after the weekend.

She's not howling all the time, she did it just a few times.  I'm
watching to see if she's acting as if in "pain", but I don't think so.
Also, the vet 'squeezed' & she seemed ok.  She seems to 'wander'
around the house also (although she's sleeping in my bed right now).
That might be trying to get her bearing, but that's why I posted for
others experiences.
Thanx, Joan

Hi Camilla,

I was given Cyproheptadine for the appetite.  But I don't see anything
happening.  What are you doing for the eating?  I got from the vet a
syringe - 30 ml & I use that.  It's what they use also.  I'll probably
call the vet after the weekend.

She's not howling all the time, she did it just a few times.  I'm
watching to see if she's acting as if in "pain", but I don't think so.
Also, the vet 'squeezed' & she seemed ok.  She seems to 'wander'
around the house also (although she's sleeping in my bed right now).
That might be trying to get her bearing, but that's why I posted for
others experiences.
Thanx, Joan

Hi Camilla,

I was given Cyproheptadine for the appetite.  But I don't see anything
happening.  What are you doing for the eating?  I got from the vet a
syringe - 30 ml & I use that.  It's what they use also.  I'll probably
call the vet after the weekend.

She's not howling all the time, she did it just a few times.  I'm
watching to see if she's acting as if in "pain", but I don't think so.
Also, the vet 'squeezed' & she seemed ok.  She seems to 'wander'
around the house also (although she's sleeping in my bed right now).
That might be trying to get her bearing, but that's why I posted for
others experiences.
Thanx, Joan

circa 25 Jun 2004 22:27:35 -0700, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav,
jks0614 (jks0614@comcast.net) said,

Jeezus, that's the way to get people to assist you. Not. People were
asking you A SIMPLE QUESTION, _B*TCH_.(*) You haven't said whether
this blindness occurred suddenly, and you haven't said whether or not
your cat's blood pressure was taken. I suspect it's because you have
no clue whether or not it was, because you haven't bothered to find
out what caused the blindness nor what your vet did to diagnose it.
In any case, good luck getting any replies after the above verbal
vomit.

Laura
(*) Sorry, Vee. :-)

Jeez, calm down. You haven't answered any questions asked which seem
important to me. I've had cats go blind *gradually* and they were fine and
acted fine. I've never had a cat go blind suddenly. I have to wonder if
yours went blind suddenly and if so, it makes me wonder if it could be due
to hypertensionas cats don't usually just lose their sight over night.

From your original post I could not tell if *all* had been taken care of.
You said she's been to an excellent vet & had blood work done.  You did not
mention anything about high blood pressure, yet you did mention renal
failure. And the two are linked.  And high blood pressure can lead to sudden
blindness.

Not all vets have blood pressure equipment (this is a fairly new thing at
vets') & would therefore think to have your cat's bp checked & if high, put
her on hypertension medication.  As I mentioned, if the blindness is recent,
& if this has not been checked out but does turn out to be the cause of her
blindness, then w/ blood pressure med the retinas may well reattach & the
blindness can be reversed.

Jeez, the people - incl. me - who are giving you this info are only trying
to help your cat.  Why jump down throats for good & correct info, esp. when
you did not give all specifics in your original post?

Cathy

You never made it clear that it was AAAAALLLLL taken care of, and
have yet to answer whether your cat's blood pressure was taken, with
equipment that most vets don't have.  

Hint: If your cat was not shaved at the "wrist" or "ankle" or base
of the tail, blood pressure was definitely not checked.

<< Basically, the cat was OK, but she couldn't live with other cats
anymore because she couldn't see the social signals they give each
other. >>

Mary L, who posts on this group frequently, has a blind cat, Duffy, who gets
along very well with her sighted cat, Holly.  Maybe someone will give the link
to her website or you could probably google it.  Duffy was blind when Mary got
him so I don't suppose this will address Joan's issues with dealing with a cat
who is suddenly blind.

Like the others who have posted, to Joan's annoyance, I really wonder about
hypertension in her cat's instance and I would at least call the vet to ask if
he took her blood pressure.  It's not as simple a process as it is taking a
human's BP.  I would hope, however, that if the vet is, in fact, "excellent,"
that he would have considered the possibility that that is what caused Shana's
blindness and would have referred her to a vet who did have BP equipment if he
didn't.  But, who knows, maybe the vet did not do that.  We're not attacking
you, Joan, we just want what is best for your cat.

As to Joan's question, I think I remember a few posts on this subject on this
ng over the years and it seems as though it took awhile for the cats to get
acclimated.  In fact, I am now recalling somone who posted a few months ago
about her cat...her dad or someone close to her was a vet and her cat went
blind and was not coping at all well with it...very frightened, withdrawn,
depressed, etc. (understandably) and the vet who was her relative suggested to
her that she have the cat euthanized because it was so miserable and she
decided to give it a time frame (seems like it was a month?) and then go ahead
and euthanize if the cat didn't improve.  On the day when the time period was
over and she had decided to go ahead and PTS, because the cat was not any
better, she and her roommate were crying and very upset, and the cat suddenly
came out and started acting much better.  So she didn't have her euthanized, of
course, and the cat wound up living quite a bit longer and adjusting well to
her blindness.

Think if you went suddenly blind, I imagine it would be very hard to deal with
for awhile and it would be even harder for a cat because you can't explain it
to them.  For Joan, I guess you should show Shana an immense amount of
affection and attention to her needs and hope she improves in time and can
accept her condition (if it is, in fact, irreversible).  I imagine her appetite
is affected because she is probably very scared and confused but I'm sure you
know she needs to eat or she will develop further complications like hepatic
lipidosis.  You will have to continue to syringe feed her enough to sustain
her.

My late cat, who had CRF, always responded very well to cyproheptadine and
would generally start to eat in about a half hour to an hour after getting the
pill.  He would then usually be fine for a few weeks before he needed another
pill to jump start his appetite.  Apparently some cats do not respond to this
med, though.  It can also make them nervous and agitated as it did my cat so
don't give her too much.  If it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work.  

I feel so bad for Shana as does everyone else here.  Joan, all they wanted to
know was if the vet did a BP on her so I don't see why you can't answer that.
We're not attacking you for not taking good care of your cat; we just want to
know if all the possibilities have been explored.  It's a minor thing to have
the cat put on Norvasc if her BP is high and, if her BP is high, the blindness
will not be the end of her complications.  She may start to have seizures and
strokes and I'm sure you don't want to see that happen.  It would be awful for
both of you.

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats:
http://photos.yahoo.com/maccandace

"One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other
than human."  (Loren Eisely)