Brat Kat’s Eye

One morning several day’s ago we woke up without our usual time to get up visit from Brat Kat. When I finally located her she was curled up on a chair, and she looked up at me with one bright eye, the other eye was glued shut. She looked up at me and managed a weak meow. Brat is a Persian with large lustrous eyes and she has had a weepy eye in the past which has cleared up on it’s own, Ron and I discussed taking her to the vet, as the weekend was coming up we decided to wait to see if the eye would clear by itself.

 

Poor Brat, she wasn’t her usual playful, mischievous self and slept most of the day not eating and ignoring her treats. This went on for a couple of days and the eye remained shut. Ron and I were getting concerned and called the vet for an appointment. They were busy and couldn’t fit us in until the end of the week. Meanwhile Brat’s demeanor improved and she was more like her old self, she chased her mouse and treats with rambunctious energy, her appetite returned but her eye still did not look good. The day of the appointment at the vet’s arrived and we got out the pet carrier. As soon as Brat spotted the carrier she disappeared. I looked in all of her usual haunts and finally located her hidden under the computer desk where she knows I can’t reach her. “Please come out Brat”, I begged, darn it all I hurt just getting out of bed in the morning I don’t want to crawl on the floor chasing a kitty that I know I’m not fast enough to nab. Ron was grumbling that if I didn’t catch her we were going to miss the “hard to get” appointment." Okay Ron, put a lid on it!” “ We will get there on time!” “I’m going to sit down and have a cup of coffee.” “I know this cat she can’t resist seeing what I’m up to when I sit with a coffee cup in my hand” Ten minutes went by, zero hour was creeping up, the cat remained safely out of my reach. Then, slowly she inched over to my chair. I remained seated and ignored her to best of my ability.  My nerves were screaming! I wanted to jump up and grab that cat! Step by step she approached eyeing Ron and I warily. Trying to remain composed I sipped on my coffee. After what seemed an eternity she tapped my leg with her paw as if to say, “Where is my morning treat?” “Hi Brat”, I said sweetly, “Did you come for your treat?”

 

 

Oh, I hate myself some days. The odious scams that I’m forced to pull to rescue my sweet kitty from herself! I slowly reached down and picked her up then walked over and forced her head first into the cat carrier Ron was holding.  There was a loud protest from the depths of the carrier. Feeling like a traitor and listening to the heart breaking meows I rushed to the car and managed to make the appointment. Of course, then she didn’t want to come out of the carrier! The vet’s assistant got her out and on the scale. She weighed in at about 10 lbs. In the waiting room Brat crouched down and glared at me with her one good eye. I was as contrite as I could be, petting and talking to her. The vet rushed in explaining that he had a busy day and was scheduled for more surgeries. He examined her eye, and drew a picture of the eye depicting its anatomy. It seems the outer layers of a cat’s eye are very much like an onion.

 

The vet explained that she had a deep ulcer on the surface of her eye that had penetrated deep through the layers, fortunately not all of the way through. The vet explained he would have to peel back some of the layers so that blood could get to ulcer to heal it. He went on to explain that I would have to leave her there. Later in the day I received a call to pick her up and we headed home armed with instructions and drops for her damaged eye. The good news is that the prognosis is “Good”. The bad news is that, besides having to get drops in a protesting cats eye every four hours, it will take a long time to heal as the ulcer was deep. Since then, Brat’s eye has improved daily I wish I could say as much for Ron’s and my disposition….. getting drops into her eye is work!