Hi Folks,
I've got a 17 year old cat (who is already deaf) and about two years ago had a weird seizure that we took her to the vet for. The vet said her blood pressure was very high and that likely caused the seizure/stroke or whatever it was, so she was on amlodipine for high blood pressure for about two years as a result.
She lost a lot of weight in that time and about the time we needed to refill her perscription we were about to bring her back for an unrelated reason. The vet suggested we wait until after the visit to give her meds again to see if her blood pressure was under control after two years on the meds and weight loss.
During the visit, two months ago, they checked her blood pressure and it was so low they said we should take her off the meds, and they said she was really really healthy for such an old cat! Yay! So we took her off the meds per their recommendation. They said "keep an eye on it," but didn't really tell us what to keep an eye on, and as far as we were concerned, we were keeping an eye out for seizures as that's why we started giving her the meds in the first place.
In the last few weeks we started noticing she seemed a little out of sorts, like maybe disoriented, anxious diminished motor skills. Then finally last night we noticed her pupils were huge, and she seemed unable to see very much of anything.
Immediately I did a google search and saw that "high blood pressure can cause blindness in cats." I took her to the vet today and her blood pressure was through the roof. By the time I got her back from the vet, she was completely blind.
Two months ago, the vet told us NOTHING about a risk of sudden blindness if we took her off blood pressure meds. The meds are so cheap and easy to administer it would have been a no-brainer to keep her on them. Now we've got a blind/deaf cat who is otherwise completely healthy. It's totally heartbreaking. She can't see a thing or hear anything, and is totally freaked out and disoriented.
I am so upset for my cat and so angry with the vet. This is a very well known vet office in San Francisco and I can't believe they are so careless.
I just don't know what to do I'm so upset.
I've got a 17 year old cat (who is already deaf) and about two years ago had a weird seizure that we took her to the vet for. The vet said her blood pressure was very high and that likely caused the seizure/stroke or whatever it was, so she was on amlodipine for high blood pressure for about two years as a result.
She lost a lot of weight in that time and about the time we needed to refill her perscription we were about to bring her back for an unrelated reason. The vet suggested we wait until after the visit to give her meds again to see if her blood pressure was under control after two years on the meds and weight loss.
During the visit, two months ago, they checked her blood pressure and it was so low they said we should take her off the meds, and they said she was really really healthy for such an old cat! Yay! So we took her off the meds per their recommendation. They said "keep an eye on it," but didn't really tell us what to keep an eye on, and as far as we were concerned, we were keeping an eye out for seizures as that's why we started giving her the meds in the first place.
In the last few weeks we started noticing she seemed a little out of sorts, like maybe disoriented, anxious diminished motor skills. Then finally last night we noticed her pupils were huge, and she seemed unable to see very much of anything.
Immediately I did a google search and saw that "high blood pressure can cause blindness in cats." I took her to the vet today and her blood pressure was through the roof. By the time I got her back from the vet, she was completely blind.
Two months ago, the vet told us NOTHING about a risk of sudden blindness if we took her off blood pressure meds. The meds are so cheap and easy to administer it would have been a no-brainer to keep her on them. Now we've got a blind/deaf cat who is otherwise completely healthy. It's totally heartbreaking. She can't see a thing or hear anything, and is totally freaked out and disoriented.
I am so upset for my cat and so angry with the vet. This is a very well known vet office in San Francisco and I can't believe they are so careless.
I just don't know what to do I'm so upset.