Thursday, December 22, 2011

A one-eyed kitty story

As some of you know, my orange kitty, Sniper, had been having some eye issues for awhile. A couple months ago, his eye became cloudy and filmy, to where it looked like cotton balls were floating around his pupil. We took him to our regular vet, who at first thought it might be FIV or Feluk (it wasn't, thank God!), but when those tests came back negative, he sent me to an eye specialist in Louisville.

After examining poor Sniper, the specialist said it his eye issues could be caused by any number of things: fungal or bacterial infections, cancer, ect. She gave me some drops to put in his eye (three times a day), and told me to check back in a couple weeks.

Sniper was not happy about the drops.

When he went back, however, his eye pressure had dropped from 80-ish to the 12-15-ish it was supposed to be at. We were all very happy, and the vet said to keep him on the drops for another month until they ran out, then to bring him back to see if he was better.

Unfortunately, he didn't get better.

His eye pressure had skyrocketed back to 80 when he returned, and the red cloudyness had gotten so bad that he could no longer see out of that eye. So, with few options left, we decided that the best thing would be to have the eye removed. Then the eye could be sent to a lab, and we could figure out for sure what was going on.

So, a little sadly but knowing it was necessary, we made the appointment.

Sniper went in for eye surgery two days ago and, happily, he is doing perfectly fine. The vet informed me that a one-eyed cat could see just as well as a two-eyed cat, and they really don't miss their other eye at all. Sniper seems completely normal now, and though he does look a bit like a bedraggled pirate, he doesn't seem to even notice he is missing something.

Now, we're just awaiting news on that eyeball.


























Here is Sniper the day after surgery. His eye socket is a bit bruised, but that's normal, according to the vet. The reason he looks so annoyed is that I'm forcing him to stay still to take a picture, and he was looking for a way to leave. We did the whole "hold still until the human is just about ready to take the picture and then dart away" dance for about five minutes before I finally snapped this shot.

Sniper goes in to have his stitches removed next month. Thanks for all your concern and well wishes. Will continue to update his progress on twitter; you can follow me @Jkagawa if you want to see how he's doing.

21 comments:

  1. Hope he gets better! :)

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  2. Aww -huggles- I send hopes for a speedy recovery :).

    Sandy

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  3. Aww! I'll be keeping an eye on updates of Pirate Kitty!

    ComaCalm's Corner

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  4. awww. Sniper is such a cutie. poor little thing, but he is so lucky to have you looking after him, thats what our pets need. More TLC. <3

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  5. Aww poor Sniper! I hope he gets better soon!

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  6. Poor Sniper! I hope he will make a full recovery!

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  7. Oh, Sniper! I hope everything turns out okay, I can only imagine how hard this must be on you. For many of us, our pets are not just animals in our house but family. :) And I have to agree, he does look like a pirate; better watch that he doesn't steal all the Meow Mix when you leave the house! LOL.

    Enjoy,
    TBQ

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  8. awwwe, poor thing. glad the surgery went well and he's getting back to normal. :)

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  9. Poor thing... I really hope everything will get better for him after all that pain he went through.
    Hope he will make a full recovery really soon.

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  10. Aww... I'm so sorry for poor Sniper! And I'm so sorry for you because you have to see your cute little cat like that. And now I'm super happy that Sniper's doing okay after the surgery! I hope that Sniper will get a lot better really soon!

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  11. Aw. Poor kitty. You're taking such good care of him. We have an orange cat called Cat who has a cloudy blue eyeball from CATaracts. No pun intended.

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  12. Poor kitty! But now Sniper is better.

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  13. I know two cats who became one eyed and they are both beautiful, happy and highly active buggers. Sniper will rock that pirate look and win over all the chicks, give him a couple months and he'll be asking you what second eye?!

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  14. You only need one eye to snipe! Happy healing, sweet kitty... *hugs*

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  15. Awww, I'm glad everything he's recovering well. Good vibes being sent his way! <333

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  16. :( hope he gets better!!

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  17. Hope he gets better! I still think he looks cute.

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  18. Aw poor kitty. Well its nice to hear that he's doing well. :)

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  19. Def hope he gets well. He's adorable. I have a cat named Leo (I was 10 when we got him) but he looks more like a tiger...once again, I was 10 (hey, that rhymes!). Anyway, I love my baby sooooo much!! I am def a cat person. Julie, or anyone really, I want to publish a book, but I can't find any publishers willing to publish for a teenager. I've e-mailed like 5, but no one seems to go for it. Any tips?
    P.S. TEAM PUCK FOREVER!!!!!!!!!
    P.S.S. I just went on to your website, Julie, and I gotta say, those interviews with the bloggers are hilarious! I was laughing for like 2 hours after I read those!! Puck is an absolute crack-up!!

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  20. I can't help but cry. i'm happy because he is fine you know but i remember my cat (17 years old already) who died this same time last year because he throwed himself under the car...i saw everything and at the time all i wanted was to put all his pieces back together and make his pain stop, so its really good to see sniper is well makes the world a little fairer after all.

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