Meet Tubbie, our Pismo Beach Veterinary Clinic Pet of the Week.
Tubbie came to see us when her eyes started to appear cloudy and her appetite decreased. She unfortunately had gone blind from severe glaucoma in both eyes. Glaucoma is a build up of pressure inside the eye. In Tubbie’s case, the pressure caused the eyes to bulge, damaging the corneas (normally clear surface of the eyes that look blue in the photos) and damaging the retina and optic nerve in the back of the eyes, causing the blindness.
There was no hope for restoring Tubbie’s vision, and the condition is quite painful (people report a migraine-type pain). But fortunately, we were able to do a procedure to make Tubbie’s pain go away. We removed both of Tubbie’s eyes. Although this may seem like a drastic or shocking procedure, patients in the situation are provided immediate relief (even with the temporary post-operative pain, they usually feel better by the next day).
At Tubbie’s 2 week recheck, she was feeling much better and was even more affectionate in the hospital than at her previous visits! When the hair grows back over her incisions, it will just look like she has her eyes closed. Blind pets, in most cases, adapt surprisingly well at home. Find tips for blind pets here (it’s geared towards blind dogs but much of the information is pertinent to you blind cat as well):
http://www.blinddogs.com/
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