Cat going blind?

[Elfin]

My cat is an elderly gent these days - about 17 yrs old.  Over the past year, his eyesight seems to be deteriorating. The vet said his eyesight was fine after shining light in to dilate his pupils.  However, I'm not convinced. If you make a noise, he looks the wrong way and sometime you can wave your hand right in front of his face (avoiding whiskers) and he won't see it! Other times he seems to have some sight. Is it possible for his eyes to suffer intermittent blindness, yet still be able to react to light?

[PurplePixie]

I had a dear little blind cat called Lottie. I'm pretty sure her eyes reacted to light...but I'm also pretty sure that her blindness was total. When it happens very gradually, cats appear to adapt amazingly well & you'd hardly realise that there was a problem..until  you move the furniture maybe & they bump into something.

I suppose if a cats vision has faded, the quality of the light around them would determine the amount they can see. It is very difficult to measure how much a cat can actually see, so having ruled out a physical cause I expect with your help He'll be perfectly content. My Lottie was a little star, she developed amazing whiskers to help her negotiate her way around...they were like a walrus!

[FP]

Elfin, I have had two blind cats.  One went blind slowly and one has been blind from birth.  Both have coped admirably and William (blind and epileptic from birth) is now 12 and still enjoying life.  He even catches the odd mouse when we are outside with him.  We obviously don't let him out when we are not about.

In answer to your question I was just wondering whether it could be a deterioraton in his brain function of some sort, especially if he looks the other way when you call him sometimes.  I obviously am not qualified to give an answer on this, but it was just a thought.  My mother had a cat that suffered from dementia in old age and would often have strange episodes of not appearing to hear or notice anything around her.

[Elfin]

Thanks for your answers. He does navigate around the house and garden ok but doesn't like jumping up or down from furniture.  I know he is not completely blind all the time, but it's not far off.

Yes, I believe he has dementia because he has also taken to howling loudly (indoors) in the middle of the night, like he is lost.  But as you say FP,  there must be some brain dysfunction as he can't tell where sounds are coming from either.  Bonkers then.  Bless!

[Jeanie]

Exactly the same happened with my cat around the age of 17 - it seemed that his eyesight was going, he also went deaf and would make yowling sounds sometimes as though he was lost.  When I stroked him to reassure him, he would stop and almost "come back" if that makes sense. He'd also seem to forget that he'd been fed - would eat some food, and then three minutes later come back and start crying for food again.  He'd been a very nervous rescue cat, but in his elderly years he transformed into a much more relaxed easy going moggy - quite happy to be picked up and cuddled and would demand attention where previously he'd avoided it.  We were advised to just treat him as though he was an elderly relative who was going a bit dotty, bless him. He seemed quite content in himself and he lived until the grand old age of 21, when he just went to sleep forever on New Years Day in his favourite spot under the radiator.   

[ninja]

My mothers cat Lizzie is about 18 years old, & has had partial blindness for two of these. Sometimes you can be an inch away from her face & she has no idea you are there, other times she appears to see fine. My two year old daughter thinks it is hilarious when grannys cat keeps bumping into doors & walls. The cat is also totally deaf - you stomp around the house, so that if even if she can see, you don't scare her to death by suddenly looming up on her out of nowhere.