hypertension blindness
by uzwi
My old cat developed hypertension blindness across forty eight hours. After an evening of disorientation, he flatly accepted his condition and began to work on his new territory, setting off in random directions until he encountered something he knew. By the next day he had mapped his way to the food, the water, the litter box, the favourite chair. He had stopped bumping into things. He would approach a surface head on, then turn suddenly but smoothly (as if he had detected its temperature, or its smell, or some small air movement associated with it, a draught moving along the skirting board, say, down the steps from the hall, into the kitchen) and walk along it as quickly as he had before the lights went out.
He never showed a sign of panic, although he did, once or twice, give things a puzzled look. Four or five days later he can go where he wants, jump up onto chairs & sofas & beds, arrive in the kitchen thirty seconds after the smoked salmon comes out of the fridge. When he gets bored, he visits an unmapped area, exits from it on a wrong line, bumps a wall, steadily argues his way back to somewhere he recognises in the matrix of scents, sounds & air movements. We give him pills for the hypertension & he isn’t keen on that. Hands come out of nowhere. They force open his mouth & put something in. Otherwise his life is much the same as ever. Two days ago he shouted at the door until we opened it. Time to work on the garden.
In an hour we’re taking an almost-dead stray we tried to save, with many a rejected pill and such, to the Vet for euthanasia. I found this post oddly affirming. Excelsior, I suppose.
Recently in the Karoo I saw a chameleon blinded by crop spraying do something similar, finding a familiar shepherd’s bush and mapping out the branches and foliage and root area, then moving on to another bush. very methodical with that swaying gait.
I envy that kind of grace
Moving post. My cat would not have adapted so well, I think. Nor would I. Also, what Mia said.
When I was 18 my parents moved house. The family cat was 13 by then and had always lived in the same house. It was fascinating to watch her settling into the new house; she would just wander round looking at everything – even up at the ceilings and upper walls, which is something she seldom did – mapping everything out. There was something almost robotic about it.
Hi everyone. Update: aggressive treatment for the hypertension has brought the cat’s blood pressure down into the low normal range; the cause of the hypertension turns out to be a small benign thyroid tumour, the treatment of which will bring his blood pressure down further, so that we’ll have to watch him for hypotension. None of it seems to have done anything for his voice, which is as loud & brutal as ever. He won’t see again, but there’s a possibility he can tell dark from light. Better than I’ve ever been able to do. @mikealx: I think I prefer louisey’s “methodical” to “robotic”. He goes about his business, & that’s the zen of him–as Mia says, grace.