[John]

Niblet is a little black and white moggy - very loving and affectionate, easy with people but in the summer she vanishes outdoors and we hardly see her. She pops in to eat at odd hours (as I've found out on my way to the loo at 5am) but that's about it.

Saw her a couple of days ago as she trotted past carrying a mole and she looked fine. This morning she came in for breakfast and I realised something was wrong with her eye. Looked just like a red boil. I didn't know what to do (I'm not good until I've had a cuppa) but she wolfed down a bowl of food and legged it back out.

Happily came back in this afternoon and we captured her, rang the emergency vet and got her over there. Upshot is she had probably been fighting (there's battles going on with the new cats up the hill) and her eyeball was ruptured, damaged beyond repair.

Now I'd have been screaming in pain - all she did in the vet's was lie down looking cute for a tummy rub.

The operation went well (removed the eyeball) and she may be able to come back tomorrow.

Not the best of days.

[Aunt Sally]

Poor little girl 

But I bet she'll bounce back and be wanting to get back outside before you've even had your first cuppa 

[John]

Since she'll be out in a flash given half an opportunity, I'll be holding her in a large dog crate. It's not ideal but she'll be safe. Keeps the other cats from bothering her as well.

I felt a bit bad about getting the vet out on a Sunday but she said I'd called it right. Suppose I'd better warn the credit card company an unusual transaction is coming...

[LILLILEAF]

Hi John
She will be better very soon,unlike us humans,we take an age to repair,i want to come back as a cat

[John]

Picking her up at 11:30

[New shoot]

Poor little Niblet, but she will be fine.  My mum's one eyed cat is still going strong at the age of 16. He shrugged his op off and got on with life, as if he had always just had the one eye.  Animals are so good at accepting stuff and moving on 

[GrannieAnnie]

Awww she'll be fine John, once she gets used to only having one eye.  That's one of her 9 gone then?

[John]

As it happens, the eye that she's lost was impaired anyway due to it being infected as a kitten. Cara rescued her from a feral colony. The rest ran off but Niblet got into a basket of her own accord.

Thanks goodness it wasn't her good eye!

Amber is completely blind and copes so well that it took us 3 days to realise there was something up with her vision and the first vet we saw said she was fine 

She's disguised as a lamp shade for 10 days now - what fun.

[New shoot]

How is Niblet getting on?  Annoyed by the cone of shame I bet and letting you know all about it

My mum's cat had a dodgy eye from an old fighting injury and that was the one he eventually ended up having removed after a further fight.  They are a bit vulnerable on their bad side from attack from other cats

[John]

The good news is that the wound is healing well, no infection or problems. The bad news is she's thoroughly fed up of being a lampshade and a prisoner in solitary to boot. Eating well and the waste system working too. In fact, she's putting weight on which is good as she was a little skinny. We're giving her the best (Sheba sachets) to make up for things and to disguise the crushed antibiotic pills.

She's managed to get the cone off 3 times now - despite a sort of harness arrangement to keep it in place. Actually hissed at me for putting her back in jail the other day 

I let her out for a bit of exercise twice a day. It feels really cruel keeping her caged but otherwise she could get into problems with the cone on and if she slipped out of the bathroom she'd be outside via the catflap in seconds.

Next vet visit is 2pm Wednesday to have the stitches out.

You can clearly see which was her bad eye (right) in this photo - her tail is amazing when she's spooked!

[grendel]

one of our cats has gone blind, gradually so we didnt notice, until we saw her walking into things, by which time of course it was too late.
She still gets around and arrives in time for food, we are now afraid of changing the room layouts in case she gets confused, but she is still her normal happy self (especially as she now has an excuse to spend more time on my lap)

[John]

I used to think it would be cruel to keep a blind cat going but when we got Amber who was blind from birth I realised how stupid I'd been. They can have a great quality of life - apart from anything else they're not so dependent on vision as us. Their hearing is fantastic, sense of smell and ability to sense vibrations through the whiskers get them through

We don't worry about furniture etc - she just seems to re-arrange her mental maps. BUT she's never had any vision which probably makes a big difference

[Vagabond]

She's beautiful, regardless of her injury!

[John]

She's beautiful, regardless of her injury!

She certainly is - but I'll be happier when the stitches are out and the fur grows back. It looks so painful at the moment.

We're worried about her coming out again. Chances are she'll be through the cat flap and away for a week.

[Kate and her Ducks]

Poor old Niblet, glad she is on the mend.

Cats are amazing, what they can cope with. My sister's cat made her way home, curled up on the bed and went to sleep having been hit by a train (we think - they are next to a railway) and having her back leg amputated. There was just a hole where her leg had been! Vet tidied up the wound and stitched her up. She still hunts and brings back those little presents!