The Bitterroot Humane Association in Hamilton, Montana, called us a few days ago about a blind female cat that had come into the shelter. They found her as a stray in early June, but no one came to claim her, and no one would adopt her.
We agreed to take her, and arranged for the shelter to drop the cat off at Dr. Dave Bostwick’s clinic in Missoula this afternoon. I drove into town to pick her up, and we got back to the ranch about 7 p.m. Alayne took this photo of me and Miss Cat late this evening as the sun was going down.
While at the clinic Dave looked at her eyes and concluded she has progressive retinal atrophy, or PRA. With PRA the retinas basically degenerate over time, resulting in eventual blindness. We placed her on the floor and did the ‘cotton ball test,’ in which we drop a cotton ball in front of the animal to see if she noticed it. She didn’t. Then, a bit frightened, she tried to get away from us and walked right into the wall. That’s we call the "wall test." (Just kidding!)
Even though she’s very blind, her pupils still dilate when exposed to light, and her eyes appear bright and otherwise normal. That is also characteristic of progressive retinal atrophy.
I called her "Miss Cat" because she doesn’t have a name, so please help give this girl a name! We welcome your suggestions — you can either post a comment on the blog or email me at steve@rollingdogranch.org.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
Leave a comment