I sent this email to my family, it sort of summarizes the story of late...Last weekend, we noticed that Farley was suddenly blind. He bumped into a few things, and he didn't realize when we'd pull his favorite toy out to play with him. We took him to the regular vet on Monday, and they didn't see anything obviously wrong, but they sent us on to see an animal ophthalmologist.
We had to wait two days, but in that time, we read about cat blindness, and became worried that because of some spots on his eyes, Farley might have iris melanoma, which is very aggressive cancer in cats, and could mean that we'd have to have his eyes removed.
Fortunately, Farley does not have iris melanoma, so no need to remove his eyes.
Unfortunately, Farley's blood pressure is dangerously high, and it caused hemorrhaging in his retinas and the pressure caused them to separate from both eyes. We learned that high blood pressure often comes along with kidney failure in cats, so it isn't a big surprise. The vet said that it looks like this has been in the works for a long time, so we don't know exactly how well he has been seeing until he couldn't see at all.
Anyway, Farley is now on Norvasc, Lasix, and Prednisone to see if that can help lower his blood pressure, clear out any swelling, and hopefully allow his retinas to get reattached to his eyeballs, which may allow him to regain some of his vision. If you were curious, his blood pressure was 275/152, and it should be closer to 130/80 or so. We also have to get his blood pressure down before he has a stroke.
Other than that, Farley does have some cysts in his eyes, but they are benign. He also has a very small tumor on one of his eyelids, so we have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get too big.
I never knew that cats could have high blood pressure, but now I do. And Farley seems to be doing okay. He sleeps a lot, but he is a 13 year old cat, so who knows. He is getting around really well--even without being able to see. He's smarter than I gave him credit for.
winston
