PRA- Blind Kitten

[Beyonce]

Hello

I booked a pedigree kitten (exotic longhair) from breeder. But now the kitten is 12 weeks old she is blind. It turns out that pedigree dad cat is a carrier for PRA. It was his first litter. Breeder very shocked as she bought him in good faith
Not sure about mum. I would assume she is a carrier too
Other kittens in litter are ok (although I think they may be carriers?)

The breeder has given me back my money but we want to keep the kitten.

Any tips or advice very welcome
Thanks

[Walesgang]

Hi Beyoncé

First thing is don't panic!

From the kitten's point of view it's never known any difference. I have an 8 year old girl who was blind before 6 months old. The key thing is to let your kitty get to know her environment slowly. Add a room at a time, making sure she has worked out the previous one first.

Have a long hard look how safe it it. Are there any places she could fall from - eg I put clear Perspex sheets at the top of the stairs so my girl could not fall through. I have also strategically placed soft things (eg cushions) in front of sharp corners and so on. If we make any changes we 'show' her by tapping them so she knows something is different.

Sometimes, she has a mishap, eg runs into things. If we see her heading into something we say 'watch watch' - she's got used to that being an alert call.

If we are entering a room we always talk to her, and we speak before picking her up.

It sounds difficult, but it becomes second nature, and to be honest, you would not,know she is blind most of the time. She does amazingly well

I am not sure what the medical condition is that caused your kitties problems, but I am assuming you will be either getting your kittie checked as a carrier, or will be getting her neutered to prevent future cats passing it on?

[Beyonce]

Thanks. We started saying 'Up' before we pick her up. And 'dinner' when we put food down.

Yes, she will be neutered when she is old enough. Which is very sad as she is gorgeous (Think Puss In Boots, ginger tabby with big eyes)

PRA is Progressive Retinal Atrophy. So she could pass it on and also I think it would be hard to be a blind mummy, so no babies.

I just worry she will be bored as cats like looking at things.....

[Walesgang]

Our girl loves playing. She can play many games but we have to adapt them - eg, drag toys on the floor for her to chase.

We have also cat proofed our garden so she has safe outdoor space. She loves sitting out and listening to things. She does actually catch the odd vole/bird!

Something else, she loves being brushed. I remember reading somewhere that blind cats can be particularly tactile.

You will find that with some adaptation, your girl will settle down very quickly.

What is her name by the way? My girl is called tips.

[Crewella]

I had a cat that lost both eyes to glaucoma aged 12, she did very well - I echo everything that Walesgang says. My Alpha did become much more dependent on her sense of smell, and found her way using that, her whiskers and texture as well as sound. She still seemed to 'watch' things - she just did it a different way!

As your girl has lost her sight so early in life, I'm sure she'll adapt fine. Give her a fuss from me.

[lilynmitz]

Thank you for deciding to keep her. It takes a big heart to do that.

It sounds like you're getting the hang of this already, but I've cut and pasted some hints below from one of my earlier posts on a similar thread, so apologies if you've read this already, but you might find this helpful.

I unwittingly adopted a blind cat (we only found he was blind, after 2 years in rescue, after we brought him home). I suspect he went blind gradually (poor blood supply to his retina - probably congenital). But he had to start from scratch when he came to our house. He coped really well and had a happy life with us, till we lost him to cancer. Some tips we learnt.

1. Always rub your fingers before you stroke her. That way it won't make her jump when you touch her.

2. We also used this method to guide Mitz through mazes of legs, feet, shoes, chair legs etc it he was getting confused.

3. Try not to move stuff around too much, and don't leave shoes, shopping bags etc on the floor where she'll trip over them. Put them on worktops, or at the side of the room.

4. Mitz tended to fall down the narrow bit of the stairs where they go round the corner, so we put a scratching post at the top of the stairs at this point to direct him to the middle of the staircase.

5. She'll find food and litter no problem - Mitz managed well from day one.

6. If you pick her up and move her to another part of the room/house, keep your hand on her side until she's reoriented herself and knows where she is. She will work it out by smell, sound and texture, or if she has some residual sight (as Mitz did in bright daylight), by light and shade.

7. Try to avoid sudden movement or sudden loud noises, particularly in the early days.

8. Mitz would sometimes get confused or lost and shout for help. I found giving him a quick cuddle always settled him down again.

9. Don't leave stuff on the edge of the bed or sofa, as when she jumps up, she'll land in the middle of it and possibly fall off. Always put it in the middle of the bed or back of the sofa.

10. Obviously you'll have to be very careful about letting her out. We made the back garden safe for Mitz, and once he plucked up the courage after about 3 or 4 months, he loved a little stroll around the garden, but we always kept an eye on him. I suspect he'd been a house cat before we had him, so he wasn't too adventurous in trying to escape, and would never jump up higher than his paws could reach, so as far as he was concerned the fences could have been ten feet high. The garden alone was enough for him. But your puss may be used to climbing the fences etc if she's familiar with them so be watchful for this.

11. Let her learn the house a room at a time. She will still bump into things from time to time, it goes with the territory, but make sure there's nothing sharp/projecting at her eye level, as she won't have a blink reflex to protect her eyes in time. Poor Mitz once gave himself an awful black eye when he walked into the end of a rod sticking out of a box I left on the floor. I never did it again, poor lad.

I'm sure there's lots of things I've forgotten, but it does come as second nature to you after a while, and they're only small adjustments you need to make. Take things gently with her, and she will adapt. Despite his problems we adored Mitz, he was such a character, and such a gentle soul, and we still miss him today, and it's two years tomorrow since he died.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[Beyonce]

Thank you for all the replies.

I haven't worked out how to put a photo of her on here but she is superb!

She has got to the top of the stairs today and started shouting very loudly that she was stuck. She has a distinctive cry when she is stuck.

We are still trying to work out the stair issue, we have wooden open plan stairs. If she gets up on the sofa then she goes down backwards as if she is going down a ladder, digging her claws in. This option failed on the stairs. I didn't see her go up either.

[Walesgang]

Could you go up ahead of her tapping the stairs just ahead so she can work it out?

Tips literally runs up ours, including the bend mid way!

There are some links in the help section at the top to downsize images - your girl sounds adorable. Looking forward to seeing what she looks like

[lilynmitz]

That's funny, Mitz used to run up the stairs as well. But like your kitten, sometimes he'd yell for us to go and retrieve him afterwards! Don't worry, she'll get the hang of it soon enough.

[Willowgill]

Its heartwarming to know you have kept her and not given her back to the breeder. As others have said being blind from the start she won't know any different and will cope very well once she gets used to her new surroundings. There are some excellent tips above so I'm sure you'll be fine. Our old boy Max who we lost on Wed had been blind for some time - probably congenital as we believe he had always had poor eyesight. He coped amazingly well and negotiated his way round objects with no problem once he knew the lie of the land but did become a bit clumsy towards the end as he rushed into the kitchen for food. Strangely I believe our other cats realised and Daphne certainly made allowances for him which she never does for Alfie. Give her lots of attention and play 'sound' games with her so she knows where objects are. We bought a large scratching post some years back which became Max's favourite toy - especially with catnip on it - he completely wrecked it so we had to replace it a few months back - woe betide Alfie if he got on it even though Max couldn't see him