Retinas and diabetes

Basette

I waited anxiously at work all day after dropping Basette off at the vet’s this morning. Her eyes hadn’t improved any from the night before. She still seemed to be able to see where I was. She came over and sniffed my feet, purring loudly. She even followed me into the office the night before.

However, she seemed confused. Patient, purring, and not sure what was going on. With her eyes like that, I assumed she had trouble focusing. The once-vicious now having trouble seeing her prey…

The vet called in the afternoon with not-so-good news: Basette has retinal damage, maybe detached retinas, maybe diabetic retinopathy (less likely). Either way, the condition was probably caused by high blood pressure related to her diabetes and reduces vision, sometimes causing blindness.

There is basically no viable treatment to help the Little Black Wonder Cat(tm). The best we can do right now it try and get her glucose levels under control.

We have to wait and see what happens with her vision. She’s already had trouble focusing, the question now is will it keep deteriorating, or will it stabilize?

The one good point? Her glucose in the evening was 290, so the insulin dose is at least having some effects.

Related Images:

Similar Posts

  • Stella lost weight

    Stella is now the smallest she has ever been: 3 pounds, 13.5 ounces. This Friday we’re going to recheck her phosphorous levels and make sure her meds are at the right dose. Poor little kitten. She is in good spirits and she has been playful. She seems okay, she just didn’t want to eat much…

  • Basette update

    Quick note: the vet called this morning. Basette hasn’t improved. My regular vet wasn’t in today, so she asked another vet to call me. Her glucose levels had dipped low again last night, so she is still responding to the insulin. I’ll post again after I visit Basette. Related Images:

  • Stellster and the bed

    Stella has developed a bad habit: if any piles of clothes are left on the bed or within her reach (like the laundry basket), she will pee on them. If the litter box is not clean or does not have enough litter in it, she will pee on my bed. (Mattress covers are worth their…

  • Stella: No UTI

    Stella does not have a UTI: lab culture came back negative for anything. Dr Kipp thinks that Stella’s urninating is due to a progression of her kidney failure possibly also some senility. Stella has a follow-up visit tomorrow afternoon at 4:45 to check her blood work (luckily that test is only $25 instead of the…

  • |

    One Last Purr

    Basette was my Little Black Wonder Cat. She recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge on June 11, 2004. It has been so hard to try and write anything here since that time. This blog journaled her story, the intense roller coaster ride from February through June, and beyond. Funny how treating and nursing a pet through…

  • Getting Stella to eat

    Getting Stella to eat is not an easy task. This weekend she didn’t want to eat much of anything. I’m not sure what to do. She is drinking well, but she doesn’t want to touch the wet kitten food, her Fromm dry food, Ambush’s food, the tuna cat food from Trader Joe’s, or the other…

One Comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.