Complete Care for Your Aging Cat - Amy Shojai [77]
Rudy eventually adapted to the loss, and she is a very happy cat most of the time. She’s got just enough sight in that right eye that she can see where she’s going, says Linda. “The ophthalmologist compared it to looking through a full coke bottle with a label in the way—I don’t know how she does it.”
Rudy still manages to leap to her favorite sleeping perches on top of the furniture. “She fakes depth perception to know how far to leap,” says Linda. “She loves to be up high.” It takes two eyes to judge depth accurately—the brain processes vision from each individual eye and automatically makes the necessary calculation. To compensate, Rudy gets more than one “reading” with her single, damaged eye by moving her head into different positions. “She’ll spend about 30 seconds stretching her neck out, and then pulling it back so that one right eye has moved a distance of about two inches,” says Linda. “Somehow in her brain she has used that to fake the depth perception you get of two eyes side by side. Then she’ll leap flawlessly and land on top of the 8-foot tall entertainment center.”
Despite being virtually blind, Rudy enjoys life to the fullest and keeps the rest of the Abys in line. So far her innate stubbornness has brought her through multiple challenges. “I expect Rudy to live to be about 30,” says Linda.
BRAIN TUMORS
Although cats of any age can develop them, brain tumors are more commonly considered a disease of older animals. “Typically the cats with brain tumors are anywhere from nine to fourteen years of age,” says Lisa Klopp, DVM, a neurologist at University of Illinois. Even when tumors are quite large, cats can appear to be “normal” on a neurological workup. Symptoms of brain tumors are often chalked up as simply behavior changes of old age when the cat becomes less active, more vocal, hides, or has changes in litter box allegiance. As with any tumor, prompt treatment offers the best hope of remission and/or recovery.
Pets are more likely to develop certain types of brain tumors. “I think now everybody agrees we see by far more meningiosarcomas, tumor of the covering of the brain. That’s true especially in cats,” says Dr. Klopp. Meningiomas are usually removable, and the biggest issue for the surgeon is the location and how accessible the spot is. The majority of these tumors in cats develop in locations that you can get to, she says—in the forebrains.
The symptoms depend on the location of the tumor. “By far the most common presenting sign is seizures,” says Dr. Klopp. Another sign is when the cat stops jumping up. Of course, this could also be an indication of arthritis. Vascular injury—a stroke—mimics the signs of a brain tumor, but the symptoms of a stroke typically improve over time. Symptoms due to a brain tumor tend to get progressively worse. An inflammatory disease, such as encephalitis, can also cause these signs, and sometimes a spinal tap or test for antibody levels in the blood (titer) will be checked for specific diseases.
A general neurological workup may include an MRI—magnetic resonance imaging—that shows the veterinarian the inside of the brain to determine if it’s structurally abnormal. “It’s pretty straightforward now that we have the imaging techniques,” says Dr. Klopp.
Senior Symptoms
Symptoms of a brain tumor are vague and vary according to what part of the brain is affected. Symptoms may grow progressively worse, or very suddenly turn bad. Watch for:
Seizures, by far the most common symptom, which are typical of the forebrain
Any behavior change, often similar to cognitive dysfunction symptoms
Head tilt, weakness, circling, or muscle atrophy