Dear Dr. John, Our cat was 18 when we elected to have her put down recently. She had lived a mostly healthy life.
Our cat and our two German Shepherds have been our children. About a week before she went blind, she was doing well. Then she started bumping into everything and was clearly failing.
She had gotten somewhat thinner in the last two years or so, but still had a decent appetite. What can be the causes for sudden blindness in a cat? Our vet was very accommodating and did not try to talk us out of our decision when we took her in about a week after she went blind. Should have considered diagnostics that might have given us more time with her and with appropriate treatments? We know that it is after the fact, but we are just reaching for some answers.
R.D. Dear R.
D., Sorry to hear of your loss but 18 is a good old age for any cat to have lived to. While I cannot say whether any diagnostics might have been done leading to knowing what specifically had gone wrong and might have led to treatment, sudden blindness in an old cat can be difficult to reverse.
Had she had regular annual physical examinations beforehand? While certain eye issues such as glaucoma or retinal disease are possibilities and can come on suddenly, I would lean more towards wondering if she had hypertension as an older cat that tipped the scales. This is the far more common cause of old cat blindness that I have seen. These cats often have widely dilated pupils upon presentation along with very high blo.
