Cat With Eye Ulcer
Cat Cataract

A cat with eye ulcer may have a cataract. Then, not every cat with an eye ulcer has a cataract. Not all cataracts lead to surgery or blindness.

Awareness for the symptoms of a cat cataract is the first step to proper diagnosis. Understanding your options for a cat's eye trauma is the first step to proper treatment.

Cataract problems are relatively rare in cats and are usually related to complications from diabetes. Some breeds inherit a tendency for developing cataracts:

• Birmans

• Himalayans

• Persians

• British Shorthairs

Of those cats with eye ulcers that may cause blindness, many are treated with surgery. If blindness does result from an inoperable cataract, your feline should live a safe life if she is kept indoors.

Her eyes are windows to her soul...

Its hard to think that something with such intense clarity could cloud over in blindness.

It pays to catch the problem early. A long-term cataract is denser and harder to remove with longer surgeries tending to involve more complications. As soon as you notice you cat with eye ulcer or cloudy cornea, you should suspect problem and seek veterinary attention.

Changes in your cat's eye clarity, increased opacity, cloudiness or a change in pupil size indicate a real problem. 

Normal aging does change the look of the lens. The cells in the eye are renewed just like  skin cells. The difference is that the eye fibers aren't sloughed off like skin cells. They remain in the eye accumulating in the center. The center of the lens gets denser resulting in a blue-gray appearance to the eye.   

This condition is called nuclear lenticular sclerosis and it does not interfere with the vision. You can distinguish between nuclear lenticular sclerosis and cataracts by examining the color.  Nuclear lenticular sclerosis looks blue-gray, while a cataract is white. 

Causes

Diabetes is the most common cause of cataracts in cats. The second most common cause is an inflammatory disease, like uveitis.

You can readily recognize the signs of uveitis:   the eye color changes, the surface of the eye is roughened and the pupil becomes smaller. This condition is painful to your cat. He may squint, have watery eyes, and eyelid spasms.

The most common causes of uveitis are the feline eye disorders: leukemia virus, feline infectious peritonitis, toxoplasmosis, or feline immunodeficiency virus. Early treatment of the disease can prevent a cataract or minimize the effect of an existing cataract.

Another cause of cataracts is an eye trauma. If your cat's eye is punctured in a cat fight or other incident and the outer layer of the lens is damaged, your veterinarian may talk with you about removing the lens. This is because damaged lenses tend to develop cancer in cats. Removing the lens negates the chance of cancer.

How to recognize a problem

If a cataract is formed or there has been eye trauma, you will probably be referred to an eye specialist, a veterinary ophthalmologist.