My cats

[lienluu]

What a horrible combo. How does he keep from hurting himsef (which is a huge risk as a hemophilliac) if he can't see? How dependent is he on you, and what does he do when you're not home? The photo of his sightless eyes and over-sized kitten ears makes me tear up. And he's still smiling!

Hi Julie,

It is a bad combination. His blindness is a direct result of his blood disorder. He was found on the street by someone and had ear mites. Because of the ear mites, he was scratching his face a lot and must have somehow scratched his eyes in the process. Because of his blood disorder, the eyes never healed properly and because he was homeless, he never got medical attention. By the time he did, it was too late and they had to be removed. During that time, he also needed a blood transfusion. He had a second blood transfusion when they had to go in again. So the first two months of his life were quite traumatic.

Happy to say now that he seems quite happy. When I first got him, I crated him whenever I wasn't home and at nights. However, after a month or so, he became very adjusted to his new home and had memorised the lay out of things. In fact, for a time, I had some boxes on the floor. When i took the boxes away, he would still walk around the space where the boxes used to be to avoid them!

At that point, the vets and I decided that it was best to let him run around the house. He was really miserable in his crate and cried all day long when he was in it. We came to the conclusion that if he is going to have a short life, that it is better he spends it happy then in his crate crying.

I think however, that once he gets past his kitten stage, he should be okay. Older cats are much less active and much less prone to getting injured from playing.

He isn't terribly active though, which is a good thing. He also knows his limitations. Whenever he jumps on a couch, he always feels his way to get down and never jumps off unless he can feel the floor or a stool (I've set up stools all over the place for him).

The past two months have been stressful though, as he is changing his baby teeth and getting his adult teeth in. Everyone a tooth comes out or one comes in, it bleeds for two to three days. Usually the bleeding is not terrible and he can deal with it. Occasionally however, he has to be taken into the emergency room. The teeth issue however should be over with soon as he's lost most of his teeth. I believe the last two are coming out now and he's been bleeding from those two spots since Saturday, but nothing severe. Though my sheets have blood stains all over them!

Lien