Tips For Living With A Blind Cat?

[ashade1]

Hello! It is Alyssa with Wild and Wonderful Animal Rescue again.. we have been so busy! We usually post to the pregnant cats and kitten care forum or the feral forum. As our rescue grows we have been SLAMMED and I haven't had much time to come on here and update. A couple of weeks ago we were messaged about helping with a shelter a couple of counties away. This shelter is run by some older women who are dealing with health issues of their own and they want out, but no one is willing to take it over because they are OVERRUN. They have over 200 cats and 80 dogs. We went out to visit and it was overwhelming just to see, I will have to share pictures from our trip later. After we left I just couldn't get some of the cats out of my head. There was a young black cat named Neptune there who had just had eye removal surgery... Another young tabby named Tabitha who had one eye removed and is mostly blind out of the other eye. And lastly there was a crate of three tabicos with URI's, one had a badly damaged eye. I figured that there was a reason I couldn't get them out of my head... so I pulled them. I have had them a little over a week now, they are all in crates now as they are in quarantine. When they are healthy they will have free roam of the room they are in. Tabitha had a mild URI, she also has diarrhea (I suspect from the antibiotics she is on for the URI, I am giving her probiotics now), Neptune has bad diarrhea. I just started him on Panacur today. The tabicos have the URI, one of them (not the one with the bad eye) is the worst. She has noisy breathing. So they are all being treated and hopefully they will be healthy and out of quarantine soon! The tabicos just got spayed and Neptune and Tabitha already were at the time of their eye removals.
So I need some advise. Does anyone have experience with blind cats? I am trying to think of what qualifications I should have for her future adopter? Tips to pass onto them. I want to make sure I am setting her up for success in her new home. She is a VERY sweet girl. As soon as she hears you in the room she meows to be picked up and starts purring.

Here is Tabitha!

Neptune! He is a super sweet and energetic guy! He was rolling around while I was trying to get his picture lol

This is the tabico with the worst of the URI

Not a munchkin cat, just angle of the picture I think lol

Here is the tabico with the damaged eye... we are getting her into our vet to see if anything can be done... it doesn't seem to be painful or anything.. I think she will just be blind out of it.

 

[Columbine]

So great that you were able to take these kitties in. They look and sound just adorable

I don't have experience with blind cats, but stephenq does - his girl, Jenny, even has her own Facebook page: Jenny the Blind Cat

These articles may give you some ideas, too:-
Blind Cats
Special Needs Cats: Meet Little
Special Needs Cats: Billy

 

[stephenq]

Hi Alyssa and thx to Columbine for the heads up. I work in professional rescue and yes i have my wonderful blind Jenny who is blind from birth.

Basically I would apply all your org's normal adoption criteria to your blind cat and the future adopter with a few additional little adjustments.
-- A well adjusted blind cat is really not more "work" than a sighted cat (exceptions below) so most of the conversation is discussing how normal it is to have a blind cat. Having said that you still want adopters who will respect the needs of a blind cat, and will address them more as individuals with specific personalities as opposed to lumping them into the generic category of a "blind cat". If there are kids they need to be both respectful, and old enough to really understand that the cat is blind.

Any adopter who has a cat or may want to get another should get a cat who not only likes other cats but is gentle with other cats. A play aggressive cat can stalk a blind cat to an unfair degree.

Adopters should be prepared to talk to your blind cat a LOT. They use sound to a great degree, and talking to them lets them know you're in the room.

As far as tips for living with a blind cat, Jenny's public fb page (Jenny the Blind Cat) will give you an idea of what her life is like. People like to joke about not moving furniture around but if your blind cat is very confident like ours, moving furniture around is interesting and exciting to her. When we moved she had a blast with all the boxes. Again it comes down more to the personality of the cat than the lack of sight.

One of the biggest insights we've learned from jenny over the years is how she actually thinks spatially, and has a very detailed spatial understanding of her world. She does spatial mapping in her head. Examples, coming down a staircase with turns and she turns at the right place every time and on the last treads leaps off knowing she is at the bottom. Going to a home she hasn't been to in 2 years and immediately knowing where she is and knowing the layout. Examples like this are endless.

Make a decision to either close the toilet lids *every* time or *never* close them. Either way she will learn, but don't teach her its ok to jump on the lid and then forget to close it. We got Jenny as a young kitten so it was important from a safety POV to go with lids down and we stuck with it.....only one mistake and she got wet.....

Obviously she shouldn't go outside unleashed unless closely supervised in a very safe environment like a quiet fenced back yard. Even leashed should be in a quiet safe environment. Jenny goes outside with us on vacation all the time, walking on the beach, and she never tries to run away, although when she's figured out the beach she will run in spurts which is great because blind cats tend to not be able to run indoors.

You can jokingly tell adopters that when multiple friends send them a copy of the book "Homer’s Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale" they should act like they've never read it . Perhaps send adopters home with their first copy

That's what I've got for you, let me know if you have any questions!

So I need some advise. Does anyone have experience with blind cats? I am trying to think of what qualifications I should have for her future adopter? Tips to pass onto them.

 

[1 bruce 1]

ashade1 ,
I don't have advice, but I'd like to give you a big old hug.
Keep doing what you're doing. I have tons of respect for those like you who do this kind of work and only want to help.
I have very little experience with blind pets but they can learn things like the sound of your voice, or clapping (they follow it). If you need to wake them up, a mid-grade foot tap or stomp on the floor can wake them without having hands (that they can't see) touching them.
I'm just a weird old guy that thinks this cat rescue thing is just cool, especially these special needs guys.

 

[Furballsmom]

I'm just a weird old guy that thinks this cat rescue thing is just cool, especially these special needs guys.

Not old, not weird, a little bit unique maybe LOL

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Wow, what wonderful information from stephenq ! I'll just add to think about toys that jingle, jangle and crinkle. Even blind cats love to hunt! A friend tied a small jingle bell to the line of her Da Bird, just above the carabiner, and her blind cat LOVES it!

 

[1 bruce 1]

J Juleslem15

 

[Juleslem15]

J Juleslem15

Thank you!!

 

[1 bruce 1]

Thank you!!

You're very welcome, my friend!

 

[tarasgirl06]

@ashade 1 May you be MANY times blessed for putting your caring into action! Though I do not have experience with blind/visually impaired cats, I know that bestfriends.org/resources would be a great place to visit as they have many special needs cats and have been the beacon for the world in caring for them since about 1984.
Basically, experts also say to keep things in the same places as much as possible, i.e., don't move furniture, and keep things picked up so that the cats have a clear pathway. Limit stress, loud noises, excitement, etc., would be on my list, as well (of course, no cat likes the first two and most don't like the third much!).
What adorable little ones!

 

[1 bruce 1]

@ashade 1 May you be MANY times blessed for putting your caring into action! Though I do not have experience with blind/visually impaired cats, I know that bestfriends.org/resources would be a great place to visit as they have many special needs cats and have been the beacon for the world in caring for them since about 1984.
Basically, experts also say to keep things in the same places as much as possible, i.e., don't move furniture, and keep things picked up so that the cats have a clear pathway. Limit stress, loud noises, excitement, etc., would be on my list, as well (of course, no cat likes the first two and most don't like the third much!).
What adorable little ones!

I like the limiting stress, noises and excitement idea.
We have plenty of noise and stuff here, but there are places that cats can be taken to/seek out that are borderline silent. White noise can help if they're worried about something.
If they bump into something, talk to them, give them a stroke, and help them keep going. Most cats are more than resilient to this type of thing, and will find ways to cope. It's hard to not baby them (...guilty ) when they're not at their best, but I think sometimes helping them when needed and being encouraging to assist them in finding things out for themselves actually helps them cope better, and live longer.
Keep the litter box in the same place, keep food and water in the same place. We feed our sighted, healthy pets anywhere from 4PM to midnight, but with a blind one or one that's ill (hi, IBD cat), it's kept on a schedule.
If they know the sound of a can opener or a bag of kibble being opened, use this to your advantage.

 

[Diana Faye]

I recently adopted a cat with one eye, and did as much research as I could prior to adopting him. Now that I have him, I honestly can't tell the difference between him and my fully sighted cat.

At first he was somewhat cautious jumping from one place to another, probably due to poor depth perception He's really inquisitive and inspects EVERYTHING whether I want him to or not, and there is no deterring him when he gets that laser focus. He very quickly learned that if he launches himself in a direction, he's bound to hit his mark, and now I can't keep him off of any high surface. I attempted to booby trap by putting objects at the edge of counters and such, and he quickly figured out the trajectory needed to jump over them (this resulted in him busting the glass top to my fish tank, luckily no injuries).

He loves chasing a laser pointer and playing with wand toys, but he's more apt to watch than pounce. It takes a little bit to get him up and going when I initiate play, but he runs and plays on his own just fine. Sometimes he goes so fast he may knock into something, but honestly all that could just be his personality and have little to do with his eyesight. He's also big on sniffing everything and chewing wood and cardboard.

His socket is still open, and that was a concern for me at first but turns out I really didn't have to worry. It gets a little weepy at times but I just take a cotton pad and warm water to wipe it clean.