Senior Cat, Hypertension Vision Loss

[hoosiercatlady]

We're at a one step forward, one step back place with our sweet 15-year-old Liz, and while I certainly plan to re-involve veterinarian this weekend, I'm just looking for some reassurance and anecdotal feedback in the meantime.

Earlier this spring, we noticed that she'd gone blind in one eye and, when we took her to the vet, the vet noticed that her retina had completely detached. It's a long story, but initially the vet did not think it was hypertension, and so within a couple "wait and see weeks," she started to lose vision in her second eye, and I pushed hard to consider blood pressure, and the vet let us borrow her cuff. Lo and behold, her blood pressure was sky-high.

We began amlodipine and were delighted to see her vision moderately improve in the "good eye," though it never returned in the one with the completely detached retina.

She was in a very comfortable coasting position for the past two months, but only in the past three days have I noticed she's almost completely blind in both eyes now.

As far as I know, her blood pressure has remained stable, but we haven't borrowed the vets blood pressure cuff for a month or so (she's gracious enough to let us borrow it over the weekend sometimes since we get falsely elevated numbers when we're at her office and Liz is terrified.) So maybe our dosage is too low.

Obviously we will need to go back to the vet for a follow-up as soon as possible, but in the meantime, I'm wondering how I should interpret her "good eye" watering profusely right now. Both pupils are huge and he seems to only have maybe about 1/4 of her vision in her one good eye, but I'm trying to make sense of her tearing up so much in that "good but fading" eye right now.

She's not pawing at it. It's not red. The discharge is clear. I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything I can do to help her in the meantime before we go to the vet to try to stave off further vision loss to prevent a kitty stroke.

I know geriatric cats can and do manage to adapt to vision loss and their later years. It's just so sad watching it happen and thinking about all the things she'll miss, feeling so helpless to do anything about it.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. I am so sorry about Liz. I have never heard of eye watering being a symptom. Maybe it is a coincidence, or related to eye strain from trying to focus? Many people will have tearing of the eye if they are straining to see. Talk to the vet about possible eye drops that might help, if she can have them.

I have read that at least 80% of the time, some underlying medical issue is causing the hypertension, such as renal issues, hormonal fluctuations, or hyperthyroidism. Your vet should be looking at this aspect because if there is something else going on, it needs to be treated and sometimes when that happens the hypertension goes away without direct treatment for it.

 

[denice]

My older kitty, 16 is in the early stages of CKD. She goes to the vet every six months for blood work and the vet checks her blood pressure every time she goes in. I think complete blood work should be done. It isn't cheap but I think that would be a very good idea.

 

[fionasmom]

I had a cat, Pangur Ban, who went blind due to blood pressure but it was related to underlying conditions which I don't need to go into here. His eyes never watered though and I have to agree that sounds coincidental to the blindness.

Definitely there needs to be a comprehensive blood test or some investigation of the underlying cause.

 

[Jem]

Could it be that whatever is causing the high blood pressure (stress or underlying condition) is also causing a MILD Herpes Virus flair up? She may not have ever had a herpes flair up before because her immune system has been able to keep things under control, but now with her age and possible underlying condition, and even stress from the blindness, is causing a flair up. Has she sneezed at all lately?
IDK, I have a Herpes cat and his eyes will randomly water due to it.