Experiences with glaucoma

[purplemonkeypancake]

I have searched old threads but I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with glaucoma in cats?

My lovely ragdoll has just been diagnosed with primary glaucoma in one eye. She is not elderly and it has come as a bit of a shock. The vet said this is rare in cats. I was wondering if this was due to her breed.

Her behaviour had not changed at all and she doesn't seem to be in pain. I just noticed her eye didn't look quite right - like the pupil was more dilated and it started to look darker than the other eye.

I can't believe it but it looks like she has already lost sight in that eye. You'd never know it as she is still a master hunter of her cat toys.

I am now faced with the prospect of administering eye drops 4 times a day forever. I'm currently on maternity leave but no idea how this will be physically possible once I return to work. Has anyone done this long term? The vet said she might regain some vision from using the eye drops but it is too early to tell.

Her eye responded to the drops very quickly but ultimately it is not reversible and it's more a matter of when she will need her eye removed :( is it kinder to do this sooner rather than later?

Any thoughts or experiences are very welcome. And here is a photo of my lovely girl taken a few months ago.

I just wanted to update this thread in case anyone searches for it in the future. Within a week we had to remove our cat's eye as she was not really responding to the drops. The pressure in her eye reduced a little but not enough to ensure she was comfortable. She was also completely blind in the eye. Giving a cat eye drops 4 times (and really it was 6 drops) was as difficult as it sounds.

It is just as well that we removed her eye as quickly as we did as the biopsy results came back as malignant melanoma in the pigment of her eye. This caused the glaucoma and blindness. She had no markers for cancer in the eye on examination so the vet was surprised. They said that if she was a dark eyed cat then we would not have noticed the changes in her eye on time.

Thankfully it did not spread to the blood vessels in her eye and is unlikely to spread further.

I'm sorry she's lost her eye but glad the cancer hasn't spread.

My previous cat had glaucoma and giving the drops was a PITA (and he hated it). He was an old boy when I got him and it was diagnosed when he was 16. We managed to keep it under control with the drops and never had to make the decision to remove his eye because he fell ill with something else and we decided to let him go given his age.

Sorry to hear about her eye. One of my cats lost hers. And it made absolutely no difference to her life at all. She was more bothered about having her whiskers shaved on that side when they shaved her face.

Thank you. We are relieved in a way because it is unlikely to affect her other eye. Aww you are so kind to have kept going with the drops. It isn't easy! It sounds like your boy had a lovely retirement with you.

That is so good to hear thank you! We are back to vet today as she seems to have developed an infection but otherwise seems to be managing okay with her one eye. I actually can't believe how well she adjusted. She has probably been blind for a while.

She's a beautiful girl. Cats are amazing with how they can accommodate for losing an eye.