My cat needs to have an eye removed - any experiences?

[Catcatcatcatlady]

My beautiful 5 year old cat has eye cancer and it needs to be removed. The vet says that cats adapt well but I feel so scared for her. She is a very active, outdoor cat and I am worried she won’t be able to enjoy her life as much. Of course, she needs the treatment so that’s what we will do.

But I was wondering if anyone else on here has any positive stories of eye removal in their cats? Any tips for recovery?

One of our Cats had his eye removed when he was around 6 months old after someone shot him in his eye. He adapted perfectly fine, went outside and lived till he was 21

Coincidentally we've had 2 cats that have both lost an eye.

The first was a rescue who had a poor start in life and suffered cat flu and an ulcer that wasn't getting better despite prolonged treatment.

The second had an injury, we don't know how, barbed wire, fox, another cat, who knows?

Both were absolutely fine, continued to go outside, hunt and look after themselves for years afterwards.

I also know someone who's cat lost both eyes, another rescue from a bad situation as a kitten. She is a house cat but finds her way around her home, including stairs, doing really well.

@JustAboutMuddlingThrough thank you. Did it affect his personality at all, or was he too young to tell? Was he an outdoor cat?

They generally adapt fine, but does he currently have any access to roads? That would be very dangerous as his field of vision will be drastically reduced.

Gorgeous girl!

Yes, there is a quiet road on our estate (5mph) although she tends to steer well clear of it and just stays in our garden.

Thank you - this is reassuring!

Our old boy has gone completely blind over the last year and is still coping well. Goes in and out, has his routes that he walks, we try not to block them . So I should think your cat will be just fine with one eye.

Yes. I’ve of mine had a really severe ulcer. (A year after accidentally puncturing the other eyeball) that healed fine. The loss of her eye didn’t phase her at all. She was more bothered by having the whiskers on that side shaved for theatre. Had issues with healing, which got messy and had to be re stitched. After the vet ignored my concerns. But after that she recovered very quickly.

Hi OP. My beautiful boy had to have his eye removed in January following a traumatic injury. He took a while to recover from the trauma but having one eye has not deterred him one bit. In fact I could bloody kill him because he keeps bringing bloody live mice in. I was worried that he would not adjust but he is exactly the same as before.

The best thing I bought him was this padded flower collar from Amazon. The rigid cone added to his trauma and this was worth every penny. He had some pain relief for a week or so after. After about a week he was begging to go out which was hard because he obviously didn’t understand! He did have to go back to have some blood/pus drained after it swelled post op but it did heal well after that. Luckily he was insured.

Ohhh that made my blood run cold .
My old girl cat had a shotgun pellet in her back , top of her tail . A few centimetres out would've shattered her spine or like your boy her eye or internal injuries .

I got mine from a rescue, she was thought to be around 6 months old and had an infection in her eye when she was found (3 months) and had her eye removed. This was what made me choose her as she was different from all the other cats there. I also thought if she did ever go missing she’d be much easier to identify 😊
As it is I don’t think it affects her at all, she is quite timid by nature and doesn’t try to go further than the back garden, which I am pleased about as I would worry about her near roads.

lovely tip - that does look much more comfortable

eta lovely boy too!

I’m sorry you had all that trouble but very glad to hear she recovered. She is beautiful

My friends cat is blind and has adapted really well. He was hit by a car and taken in by a rescue, he lost his vision after the accident. My friend adopted him and he still sits on the (cat proof) balcony and can chase flies, sense birds etc

My cat had her eye removed she had melanoma and had already gone blind in that eye. We had no idea. It was a relief for her as she’d been in pain. The melanoma had triggered glaucoma. We had some issues with healing but it’s a distant memory now. It did heal fine in the end. She is an indoor cat and very happy. She manages fine with one eye.

Our beautiful girl also had cancer in her eye and had to have it removed. She’s a little older (9 at the time) but has adapted just fine. She’s completely unbothered by it. She’s an outside cat and we haven’t noticed any changes really. The recovery was fine, she found the routine of all the many different eye drops we had to do multiple times a day following the biopsy, and in the good eye after the op, much more stressful than the procedure itself.

One of our previous cats lost an eye aged about 5. Recovery was very quick and it didn't seem to impact him at all - he remained an excellent mouser and he was still just as agile as before.
I thought it gave him a certain raffish style. 😻
He lived to over 17 so it clearly didn't do him any harm.

Name changed for this because he is well known. This is Bob. Had to have an eye removed during the pandemic and the other one was removed about two years ago.
He's adapted really well. When he had one eye he was still going out and doing Bob stuff.He's amazing. We were worried about how he'd cope but within 24 hours he'd managed to get upstairs (wearing a cone). Couldn't quite work out how to get back down but now runs up and down stairs easily. Then one day DP asked me why I'd put him on the kitchen table. I hadnt, he'd worked it out for himself. Ditto the bookshelves.
You can see from his ears he was a bit of a fighter and he still wanted to go out on patrol. The harness we bought to take him for walks was a waste of money because he protested too much so we just supervise his time out. He has a circuit that he does and likes to scale the compost heap for a wee. Next door neighbours love him so he gets to go out front and say hello if they're about. He also needs to go into the street to wee up his favourite lamppost and do some sniffing. I've had a few weird looks standing in the street telling a blind cat to hurry up. 😀

I had a cat that went blind at age 7. No idea why. He lived for another 7 years until he got lymphoma. He managed splendidly with no sight to the extent that visitors would see him stalking and jumping on his toy mouse and not believe he couldn’t see. We moved house and within half an hour he knew his way around and where his food and litter tray were. He was as happy as Larry. Don’t worry, your cat will be fine with only one eye.
Edited to say he had always been an indoor cat.

My cat had his eye removed due to cancer when he was 10 years old. I asked the vet how it would affect him and she said it would actually improve his vision, because in his 'bad' eye he would have had some double vision, so he would be better with the eye removed.

I was quite worried about it, but she was absolutely right, he was fine, and carried on doing everything he did before, including going outdoors.

Our oldest cat is blind in one eye and he manages absolutely fine - he goes outside, jumps and climbs and has absolutely no issues whatsoever.

I have a one eyed cat. Not sure if she was born that way or if it was removed as she came to us as a stray. She’s absolutely fine and has the best life with zero impact on her day to day.

One of mine has only had one eye from four weeks old she had to have it removed because of some idiots I adopted her at 12 weeks and she’s just like a normal cat but scares easily if anything comes up fast on her no eye side. She can’t jump over fences of too high as I think her depth perception has been affected. Your cat will adapt fine! Maybe just limit her outside time to just your garden.