Our cat, Gina, who is about 17 years old seems to be having trouble seeing.

She can walk about but and doesn't bump into stuff or even nearly but she can't go down the stairs on her own or get out the door to the garden so we think she must have blurred vision perhaps? it has only become apparent in the last day or so as well.

Any advice? any experience with a cat with poor eyesight?

Other than that she's in great shape (for a 17 year old cat), she's eating and drinking still too.

(( probably not the help you were looking for… sorry..hopefully some others will have real advice ))

Trip to the Glue Factory and tell her to get herself sorted?

What was the Disney film about the Lion who needed glasses? You could try that…glasses help blurred vision. Although 17 years old for a cat – a very good innings and it could just be done to the cat ag(e)ing process.

MY brothers cat had the same, practically blind but the vet prescribed some drug to help the issue but even he was amazed when the cats eyesight came back to 100%.

Get it down the vet.

MIL had an almost blind cat and it lived a good aged a coped very well, I'd be inclined to have the vet check there isn't an undlying condition that caused the blindness as apposed to old age and take the descision on from there.

We had a cat go blind as a result of diabetes. I think that the result was the retinas detaching. You could see this happening as the reflective properties of the eye would disappear in places. He seemed to cope reasonably well with the lack of sight.

Well worth a trip to the vets I reckon though, in case it's something that can be reversed. 17 is a good age though so it could just be that.

We had a cat who was pushing 20 and started to go blind.Took him to the vet who said that there was nothing that could be done as it was purely old age.The vet said that cats can adapt to losing sight and he didnt go outside towards the end.I cant say that he did adapt very well Im afraid but we felt we had to give him the chance.As it turned out old age caught up with him in the end – still miss him now 🙁

Slightly off thread, me Mums Jack russell is losing his sight but he is coping well.He finds his way around by barging into things then moving on – he is as daft as a brush tho 😀

Our last cat was going blind because of blood pressure problems, she was about 13 at the time.

Like Blingbling we took her to the vet who prescribed some medication for her which regained her her sight and gave her another 2 years of good living. She finally died aged 16 due to kidney failure but we think she had a good life.

Take her to the vet and let them have a look at her. Good luck.

VET

definitley get to the vet, and see if they can help as above. As an aside, our friend has two blind cats (from birth), though they don't go outside, the live very happy lives (assuming you don't move the furniture around too much), it quite disconserting to have a blind cat jump up on tht e sofa next to you and start nuzzling you for fuss. Two very cutes cats, don't think there life is over because they go blind…

Vet?

Specsavers?

And again…. trip to the Vets?

OT.. but on from foolishmiracles post… a friend of mine used to have a Jack Russell, which lost one eye years ago, I think in a cat fight, and then went blind when he was bout 14 yr old…he learned to goose-step around the house and when his paw hit something he would turn away.

funny but sad.

RIP Bertie.

One of our cats lost his sight at the age of 20, just cateracts (lol) from old age but we got him checked out to make sure it was nothing sinister, found his way around with his whiskers and hearing. He died at 24. He still went out into the back garden (enclosed) quite happily and sat in the sun (before dying!). Once or twice he had a near-pond incident where he obviously mistook the green weed on the pond for grass, but he was a happy cat til the end.

As said a trip to the vet beckons.

Our 13 year old cat went suddenly blind earlier this year – pupils totally blown and unreactive. Coped very badly, extremely traumatised, basically hid herself away under a bed. Came home from work one day to find her crawling along on her belly on the back lawn, presumably having found her way outside to go for a wee.

The vet said cats can cope extremely well if they lose their eyesight gradually and will adapt well but often do not cope well with sudden blindness as was the case with ours. We had her put to sleep as she also had an abcess in her mouth at the time which was not responding to antibiotics.