I mentioned pretty recently...

I mentioned pretty recently that our oldest cat, Sindar, may have gone blind.  We took her to the vet and found out that she has high blood pressure which has caused retinal detachment and obviously, blindness.  (It's not uncommon, so those of you with older cats - you might want to have that checked.  Her medication was $9.  I'd pay that every month to keep her eyesight.)  Her blindness may or may not be permanent; I'm hoping we caught it in time that she can regain at least partial vision.  She also has a giant blood clot in one of her eyes.  It's easily visible by just shining a light in there.  😬

She started her blood pressure meds today and I hope they are helping her feel better, at least.  She has slept a lot this afternoon, so I think she needed some good rest.  She'll go back for a check-up soon and we'll get the results of her bloodwork, too, which hopefully won't show any other major problems.

I have dealt with a lot of animal situations over the years; one of my foster dogs was deaf (or at least very hard of hearing).  This is my first time helping a blind animal, and it's not without its challenges.

We chose to leave Sindar in our bedroom / my office where she has lived for the last year +.  The two other cats in there with her know that she is the boss and to leave her alone.  Though the room is large, she knows her way around and we feel that moving her to a new space (even if it's smaller) would just be confusing to her at this point.  Besides that, I can keep an eye on her when I work, and I keep an ear out for her when I sleep.

I've been sleeping light as hell since we discovered that she couldn't see.  She ended up falling off the bed once; I plugged in a nightlight for her and I don't know if she still had a little bit of vision left at some point and that helped or if she learned to feel for the edge of the bed with her paws to avoid a fall again; but she's only had one clumsy landing and not another "fall" that I can tell.

She still makes her way to the food, water, and litter box.  She's doing fine with all of that.  She still gets on and off the bed.  Sometimes she meows out like she's calling for help, so we try to help her when she does.  We pet her to soothe her and then try to make a sound (like rustling her food) to orient her.  Sometimes she wants to nap in my lap and I let her.  Sometimes she lays awkwardly in the middle of the floor or in front of a door and we have to watch out so we don't step on her.  It's also weird to feel a cat stepping on my feet, but that has become a norm.

Sometimes, situations are straight-up funny, and like... yes - it's sad, but also you just have to laugh.  There are times when she walks with so much confidence - right into a wall or onto one of her roommates.  Adrian (our runt who is in the room with her) is terrified of her, and yesterday she walked directly up to Adrian's face and scared her so bad she scrambled to the TOP of the cat tower to escape. 😂😂😂 I think her two roommates know that something is going on, but not what.

Then there are times that are significantly less funny, like hearing her fall off the bed that time.  Or like the other night when I woke up to her growling and hissing because something "had" her.  She'd gotten a claw stuck in one of the pyramid-shaped cat bed tents that we have and couldn't get away.  I don't know if she bumped it and then slapped it and got hooked or what, but she was PISSED.  Sindar is pretty strong and definitely a cat that demands respect, so it wasn't the most fun for me to suck it up and untangle her, but it had to be done.

The vet couldn't say if, when, or how much her eyes might heal, so this is how we're rocking along right now.  Obviously, her quality of life is our #1 priority.  We've loved and lost so many in the past that we've learned (the hard way, unfortunately) that letting them go a minute too soon is better than any amount of actual suffering.  We just don't roll like that.  So hopefully, her bloodwork comes back good and we can get our old lady on the mend.  I'll keep you all posted.  ❤