Blind Kitten

[sottice]

I have a blind kitten! She is almost 3 months old, and I need advise! I've never had a blind animal before and need tips from anyone that can offer advise.

[Tom Horn]

I'd just be patient and gentle. Protect her. This is a normal cat except for not being able to see. So help her as best you can. She'll eat, use the litter box, hang around and even play in her own fashion (might be interesting to see what games she comes up with there).

Keep her inside; this will NOT be a good outdoor cat. She's way too vulnerable.

A friend has a blind cat named Missy Kitty who is four years old. She has her own routine and knows her human's routine, too. After someone has a shower in the morning she waits, then goes to the kitchen to wait to be fed. If there's a patch of sunshine by a window she finds it & lies down & goes to sleep there. She's terrifed of the vacuum. She has a favorite spot and it upsets her if the furniture is re-arranged.

She has only been out rarely, under close supervison. There is a fenced back yard she explores under careful watch, moving slowly and smelling everything. The dogs that live there are curious but have never hurt her or played rough.

So there's no need for sadness or dismay. Just protect her. She cannot defend herself or run from danger--so keep her from harm.

[TheAntiPam]

Greetings from Winston Winkle Whitewall! I’m a three year old blind kitty, and purrhaps I can tell you about my experience. I was born blind, so being blind is all I know. But, my mommy rescued me when I was two weeks old and now I have a good life!

I can hear very well, and I use my sense of smell and touch to get around. Sometimes I bump into things, or spin in circles for no apparent reason. But, I don’t get hurt, so my mommy just lets me go.

I don’t play much with regular cat toys, because they are mostly sight-triggered. Sometimes I like things that make noise, but mostly I like to attack socks or other soft things I find lurking on the floor. I often save my mommy from the evil dirty socks that seem to appear near laundry day.

My mommy says I’m a horizontal kitty – meaning I don’t jump up on things much. My sense of balance isn’t as good as it should be, and sometimes when I’m curled up into silly kitty positions, I end up flipping myself over, or falling off my perch. I haven’t hurt myself, but … Sometimes loud noises outside make me scared, but all in all, I’m a pretty mellow cat.

I follow my mommy around when she wanders around the house doing her chores. I do come to her when she calls me, but it sometimes takes me a while to get there – I often take a long route instead of going directly to her….

I can find my food and water as long as my mommy leaves in the same place every day. She has a big cage for me with a shelf and a toy and food and water, which I stay in sometimes so I can rest and be out of peril. When I was little, I didn’t meow very much, so if I got lost behind the furniture, my mommy couldn’t find me. So, she got the cage as a place for me to feel safe.

There are two difficult parts about being a blind kitty. First, I didn’t learn all the good kitty body language when I was little. So, when another kitty comes up to me and wants to be friends, I don’t do the right things – like butting heads or sniffing or playing. Sometimes I use my paw to reach out and touch them, but they think I’m trying to hit them, and they run away. So, I don’t have any close kitty buddies. I think my mommy wishes that she had gotten another kitten to grow up with me, so the other kitten would be used to my strange ways.

Second, I have trouble being a good kitty with the litter box. Sometimes I get close, but I miss the box. I do try, and I understand about finding one spot to go potty, but my aim isn’t always right. Other times, I sort of forget where the litter box is, and I give up on trying to find it. That makes a mess for my mommy, but she doesn’t get too upset. She has all the cleaning stuff to make my mistakes go away.

So, I have a good indoor life, and I get lots of tickles and love from my mommy. She worries sometimes that I might be bored or want a kitty friend. I am not as easy a kitty as my big brother Murf was, but my mommy loves us each in our own special kitty way.

Good luck with your special kitty - if you have any other questions, I will try to help!

Kitty hugs from Winston!

[sottice]

Thank you Winston and Tom. I am very worried about this little kitty. She is so very tiny, about half the size of her litter mates. I have to put water on her mouth several times and coax her into drinking it off my fingers before she is interested in drinking from the bowl. She doesn't seem to eat much at all.

I had her in a box in my room last night, and about had a stroke when I got up this morning. She was gone! I finally found her in the middle of the kitchen floor! WHEW!

Our GSD watches out for her and stands over her if anybody gets too close. It is so sweet.

[Tom Horn]

Hm. . . . If she's especially small, then maybe the factor that caused her to be blind also affected her overall prenatal development. I know that a kitten raised on dog food wil go blind; cats' nutritional needs are veery specific. They need lots more protein than dogs.

In the wild, of course, this little kitten wouldn't last very long. But it sounds as if you've already begun to devise ways to communicate with her. Like, if she has problems getting the hang of what the water bowl is for, that definitely shows that she'll need special help adapting: here is where you eat, here is where you drink, this is where you do your business, etc.

I'm impressed that she'd have the gumption to get out & wander into the kitchen on her own. The world is a big enough place even for sighted kittens.

Who is GSD?

You may find that some other animals will be protective, but some may not act very nice to her. Just watch & see. Some may need to be shown that it is NOT okay to mistreat her.

[TheAntiPam]

Winston asked me to add this: He also has some health problems besides the blindness. He has a heart murmur, and some of his insides aren't in the expected places He is only 6 lbs because of the heart problem using all his growth energy. The vet says I need to watch as he gets older, because his heart might not last .

Make sure you make the kitty food very smelly - use wet food, or put a bit of milk or tuna-can water on the dry to make it smell better. That might get the kitten to eat more. And, with practice, you will find a smell that won't bother the humans too much.

Get a box with high sides - for a while I even used a big plastic flower pot. Put a soft towel in the corner and the water in the other corner. If your kitty tips the bowl of food and/or water, you can get the kind of bowls that wont tip. Or, in Winston's cage, we use bowls that attach to the bars of the cage so they wont move.

Some blind kitties don't like to be picked up. But, with Winston, since he was handled extensively since his 2nd week, he doesn't seem to mind, and is easy to handle. Sit on the floor with the kitty and let her climb on you.

And of course, just love her!

[Fuzzy317]

Originally posted by Tom Horn
Who is GSD?

I believe they are referring to a German Shepherd dog - GSD.

[Tom Horn]

Oh! Got it.

It's funny to see the alliances animals of different species will form.

My cat Ingrid has a little brother who's a Rex rabbit; Louie moved in with us when Ingrid was 12, and I didn't know how that would go, but she watches him & tells him things like "You better not" and "I'm gonna tell." They're pals.