Newly-blind cat: bored/depressed

[CSquaredM]

Hi all,

I've been lurking on these boards for the past couple of weeks after one of our cats, Matilda, unexpectedly went blind. Matilda has had chronic eye problems for over three years now, and the biggest one at the root of the other problems is uveitis. It began in her right eye and we treated it, thought it was cured, and eased off her medication. She then got an ulcer in the same eye, which we treated, then the uveitis flared up again. Treated that, backed off, more ulcers, etc. ad infinitum. She kept getting ulcers and uveitis flare-ups, and since those medicines are incompatible with one another, we finally ended up having to have her eye removed a year and a half ago. Oh, all this is going on with a feline ophthalmologist, by the way, the closest of which to where we live is a three-hour round trip. All these meds and trips did not make for a happy cat, and though we were heartbroken that we couldn't save her eye, we knew that ultimately it would improve her quality of life.

And then her uveitis cropped up in her remaining eye. We had finally seemed to have found a cocktail of eyedrops that kept it mostly at bay, with just a handful of scares when her pressure got very high. A couple of months ago she began a bad flare-up, but otherwise seemed okay. My husband took her to her semi-regular ophthalmologist appointment a month ago, where he assured him that though the protein deposits were there, her pressures were good, and it would probably abate after a few weeks.

Cut to Monday, two weeks ago, when I came home from school and realized that Matilda couldn't see anything. We packed up the cat and headed off to the ophthalmologist, who confirmed that her pressure was sky-high. He said that the retina and the optic nerve didn't look shot, so there was a chance some of her vision could be restored, but we had to get the pressure down fast. They pricked her cornea to release some fluid, put her on different drugs, and sent us home. She's had her pressure checked three times since then and it's been in the normal range each time. We are taking her back to the ophthalmologist on Wednesday. She is still completely blind.

I know at this point it's foolish to keep my hopes up that her vision might come back, and I'm trying not to be completely heartbroken that this happened. I can't help but feel that we failed her, even though I know we've done everything humanly possible to prevent this. I'm trying to chin up and move on and adapt, which is why I'm here. I'm finding that since she went blind, Matilda has adapted okay--she still grooms, finds her litter box and food, etc.--but overall she seems so bored and perhaps even depressed. She was never much of a cat who liked to play with toys--she always entertained herself by looking out windows, wandering around the apartment seeing what we or our other cat were up to, etc.--so the new toys I've gotten (crinkle balls, balls/mice with bells, wand with a ribbon and bell attached, etc.) don't interest her. If I sprinkle some catnip on something, she's only interested in it as long as it takes to lick the catnip off the toy. She used to talk to us constantly, or flop on the ground for some belly rubs, or come up to our desks while we worked to meow incessantly until we made our laps free. I was always amazed by how loudly she always purred. She doesn't do any of those things any more--now she spends her days on our bed, rarely venturing off it. I know she needs time to adjust, but I want to do everything I can to help her. Any suggestions? I know I'm largely writing out of selfish motivations because it breaks my heart that our formerly happy, outgoing cat just isn't herself anymore

[critters]

Hmm. You're off to a good start. I've put jingle balls in a track ball toy, and playing with it doesn't take much effort. The Kitten Mitten is jingly and fun; Amazon doesn't carry the ugly, blaze orange and blue/white stripey ones like we have. Ping pong balls in a small, hard space are fun.