Senior Cat, Deep Red Pupil

[hoosiercatlady]

My 14-year-old female cat (very sorry and energetic despite he geriatric age) has looked a little odd to me lately and I couldn't pinpoint why. Only tonight did I realize only one of her pupils is glowing its regular yellowish green in the light, but the other looked plain black. I felt up a light to it and the non-glowing pupil appears a dark red.

Of course I will be calling the vet tomorrow. I'm just wondering if anyone had any ideas on what we might be facing. My mind is racing through some kind of hemorrhage to a cancerous growth to who knows what. She's otherwise fine and not acting ill or visually impaired.

 

[rubysmama]

I was tempted to Google, but decided against it, as sometimes the results are just worrying. And since you're calling the vet anyway, you might as well just wait get their diagnosis. Sending you and your cat vibes that it's nothing serious.

 

[di and bob]

This usually indicates blindness in that eye, but not necessarily permanent. I have had cats with bad pupils and it was caused by infection. The best thing to do is to do as you are, get a vet involved and see what is going on, early detection is always a good thing. I'll send healing vibes and prayers his way!

 

[hoosiercatlady]

Thank you for your insight!

No answers yet, but one of my pet peeves is tracking down someone's narrative online that closely resembles my own, and then realizing the thread hits a dead end and no resolution is mentioned. I don't want to be that person.

So, what happened next is that I took her into the vet the next morning, and our vet diagnosed her with a detached retina. She is now blind in that eye. she didn't see anything back there that indicated any kind of tumor being behind it, which is a relief. She took a look at the pressure in both eyes to make sure there isn't something glaucoma or blood pressure related, and also ran a basic CBC and chem panel, along with thyroid tests to make sure nothing there might indicate something. I'm still trying to hear back from her as to whether those results are all back. When they drew the blood, the technicians mentioned that it looked thin, but when I asked the desk staff if they could at least let me know if anything from her blood tests was out of reference range, they said everything looked normal, including platelets. not sure why I haven't heard back from the vet yet since she is normally amazing and incredibly on the ball (she even came into the closed office on an Easter Sunday afternoon once when the same cat had come down with a mysterious mega illness), so it's possible she's just been incredibly busy and didn't have any firm answers for us yet in the meantime.

I'm just wanting to be sure this isn't something that could happen again in her remaining functioning eye.

Honestly, in the back of my mind, I'm a little worried that it's my fault. She was lying between me and my husband a couple weeks ago, and I was messing around on my phone with it unintentionally poised above her. at one point, I accidentally dropped it and it bumped her on the head. I immediately checked her out to make sure her pupils were dilated, there wasn't a bump, and she wasn't acting strangely. It didn't appear to have fazed her at all, so I didn't give it a second thought until going back in my memory after she's gotten this detached retina.

On one hand, I absolutely don't want the guilt of knowing my famous clumsiness may have caused this for her, but at least I would know that something like this occurring in the other eye in the future is totally preventable.

So, long explanation without a real answer, I know. I just didn't want to be the kind of person that is experiencing something that someone else Googles for, and then they never get an answer/epilogue.

 

[hoosiercatlady]

(Oof. Apologies for the typos. I knew better than to post without proofreading, but neglected to... Suffice to say, I meant that I made sure her pupils weren't dialated when I accidentally bonked her on the head.)

 

[di and bob]

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness in getting back to us, it is much appreciated. It will most likely help others in the future too! As for your dropping the phone on her head, being an RN I would think it would take a MUCH harder blow to cause something like a detached retina. At her age it would be a better bet that the cause is age related and due to age related degeneration of the retina. The most common cause is high blood pressure, but taht doesn't just go away and she should have still had it at the vets. I'm so glad she is OK, and will pray it just happens to that one eye. Cats DO live happy, long lives blind though, adn i know whatever happens she will have you there to love and support her!

 

[rubysmama]

I know from my own Googling, how frustrating it is when a thread you're reading (on any topic) just ends with no clue as to whether the problem was solved or not.

So I also want to thank you for coming back and posting an update. Hopefully you'll hear back from the vet soon with some answers to your questions.

Meanwhile, do you have a picture of your girl you could post so we can see her?
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