Meet our siamese Attack Cat, Loki . He is three years old, a heathen, and born from the devils spawn. This cat is chuck full of curiosity and rambunctous behaviour, he is literally an Imp.
However, since a kitten, his right eye pupil has been a little smaller than the left. You can see it in the pics. I have been wondering if he is blind in that eye. How would we know?
He does bump into things on occasion, but he does not appear to be seeing the world in 2-D because he is very agile and can jump from one object to the other with relative ease. One thing I find interesting is that our other siamese attack cat loves the lazer pointer…where Loki acts as if he can’t even see it. Unless we are moving it from side to side in front of his face, he appears to not even see it at all.
We are goign to the vet this weekend so we will ask her if he may be blind…but I was just wondering what the dopers who are cat lovers think. And I wanted to show the little guy off a bit of course
Cats don’t see things the way that we do, that’s for sure. My old cat Orly wasn’t at all interested in playing with toys or chasing things whereas our rescue cat Nuke loved chasing bootlaces and bus tickets and all sorts. I used to wonder if Orly had problems with her sight because she never seemed to look ‘up’, she never noticed if I was dangling a toy above her head and even if she did feel something touch the top of her head she wouldn’t lift up and look at it.
When I asked the vet about it, he just said that some cats are just like that! He did whatever he could to test her sight and said she could definitely “see”, it was just hard to tell how much vision she really had.
My dog couldn’t care less about the laser pointer. Well that’s not quite accurate. He is quite interested in the pointer in your hand, and totally indifferent to the dot across the room. I know he can see it (he was vaguely interested the first time he noticed it), he just acts like he can’t.
Meet Lt. Dax, otherwise known as the 5-toed Chair Sloth. She has some Siamese heritage (I got her when she was about a day old - she was solid white) and she has blue eyes. I don’t think she sees very well - every time Mr. SCL or I go to pet her, she has to sniff the hand very thoughly before she will allow it to touch her. She seems to get around all right, even running on the carpeted shelves in the cat suite.
Maybe some veterinary Dopers will come in and tell us how to do a vision test on a cat. Vetbridge? Are you there, dear?
Sometimes I think our cat has some screwed up vision too - she seems entirely unable to do those agile leaps most cats can do! The other day she tried to jump from the couch to a small table, same height, no more than 1.5 feet away. She missed. In fact, she’ll jump down to the ground and then up to the table (or vice versa) when she wants to go from one to the other. She has never jumped onto the kitchen counter, and I’ve seen her miss trying to get onto our bed. OTOH, she can jump straight up to the bathroom counter to get her fix of tap water (she’s an addict). I have pretty much zero depth perception (as measured by several work-related vision tests, and optometrists) so I just figure it’s one of those like-owner-like-pet things!
Yeah! y’all aren’t taking care of those cats! Man are they beautiful! I love the old fashion “apple headed” siamese. The colors on the other one are so unique and beautiful. I have no idea about the cats eye though. Just came to see the pics!
Interesting, the iris color looks a little off, too. Did he ever have any injury to the eye? Do you notice if the pupils dilates or constricts in changing light?
I don’t think you could find out anecdotally, I’ve seen cats that had anisocoria as an incidental finding and the owners never reported any suspected vision problems. It probably is one of those things that may or may not affect his vision.
Well, that’s real helpful sounding isn’t it?
Anyway, you’ll just have to have the vet look inside the eye and toss cotton balls in front of him but the latter is not always a definitive test.
My cats with vision problems:
I had a cat that had juvenile cataracts in both eyes and, according to the veterinary opthalmologist I took him to, he could see shadows at most. However you could never tell by his behavior. Except he was a little confused and thought he was a dog for a while, but that’s another story. He managed to find small objects, like my earrings, to steal. The only time he really seemed to have a problem was when I rearranged the furniture. He was one of the best cats with the most personality I ever had. His name was Stevie, as in Wonder.
I currently have a one-eyed cat that is a total klutz but it doesn’t seem to be related to his vision. He’ll jump up on something and then fall off. I think he’s just so gangley he can’t control his limbs. He had an eye problem since kitten hood so he’s pretty used to monocular vision. He’s a Siamese-type breed or mix of some sort, he’s got lynx point markings. He’s another one of the best cats I ever had, full of personality, my other cats would disagree though. His name is Popeye but it’s been shortened to just Pi. He’s a total pest to the other cats except for his kitten, Luna.
Luna is another Siamese or mix of some sort. She also has Lynx-point markings. I was nursing her back to health as a teeny sick kitten and ended up having to keep her when Pi fell in love with her. Everyone loves her, she’s like a Nermal cat, just too cute. She has slight strabismus and sometimes mild nystagmus*. But she seems to see just fine.
[sub]*Sorry for the $10 words, I have to get my money’s worth for my college edumacation. Just in case it’s needed …
anisocoria = different sized pupils
strabismus = crossed eyes
nystagmus = involuntary side to side movements of the eyes.[/sub]
