MY MATE OZZIES HAS EYE TROUBLE !

MY MATE OZZIE !

Meet my friend Oscar normally,better known as Ozzie to his friends.
He is just over 4 years of age and came to join us when he was 13 weeks old along with his sister Jasmine.

Just before Christmas we noticed Ozzies left eye looked a little different at night when the light reflected not the same as his right one and you could see a shadow at the top of it. We then took him to our vets in Evesham she examined his eye and then said she would need to get a fellow vet to come and take a look as well  'never a good sign !'.Anyway the other vet examined ozzies eye and said it looked like a Tumor ! and said the only way you could test to see if the tumor was Benign or malignant ( not so good this one ! ) was to remove the eye ! .


We were in a state of shock and  he was booked in provisionally to have it removed the following Wednesday,we asked the vet if that was the only option,she said she would try and take some pictures of the eye and send them to a specialist ophthalmologist to get there opinion so pictures were taken and were to be sent and should get a response by the end of the week,we went away devastated were not expecting that just thought he had probably bumped his eye at some point because he does charge around like a mad fella at times !
We had not heard anything on Friday so on Monday we rang and were told that we could make an appointment to take Oscar to see a Christine Heinrich at Willows Veterinary centre & Referral Service at Solihull nr Birmingham Willows Vets an appointment was made for the following Monday.
Solihull is about 50 minutes to an hour away from home depending on traffic,Oscar is a nervous little fella at the best of times always has been,although his sister is more chilled out,strange really don't know why that is ?. Anyway we were not looking forward to the journey,a few days before we bought a plug in Pet Remedy diffuser and some Bachs Rescue Remedy for Pets ( make sure you get the one for pets not humans because that contains alcohol not good for cats + they can smell it ) to put on his treats and in his drinking water to try and calm him before the storm.
Monday arrives and we manage to get him in the carrier ( not happy ! )
We set off to Solihull Oscar did not enjoy the journey at all but we arrived for the appointment and got booked in and waited to go in. Willows is a very smart looking outfit everything looks very new and shiny,we get called in. Christine has a good look at him took loads of photos of his eye,checked the pressure in the eye,her conclusion was that it was probably Benign but not 100%,there was a possibility that it could be operated on but not many cats had had this procedure done before and there was a chance that if any tumor cells were not removed they might grow back.Christine said she would speak to some colleagues to get there opinion and would get in touch later in the week.We made our way back home to wait for the verdict.
We had a phone call from Christine who had been in touch with some colleagues and said  a pathologist  had spoken to said he thought it might be a Lymphoma Tumor which would not be good news as these can spread to other parts of the body and she suggested that she could try and take a sample of the Tumor by inserting a needle into the eyeball under a full anaesthetic, the result would determine whether a operation to remove the tumor would be possible.We needed to give this some real thought but really it was best to let her do the procedure.It was arranged for Oscar to go in on Monday morning and they would get the sample then he could come home in the afternoon after he had recovered from the anaesthetic,we went shopping in Solihull,then later in the morning we got a phone call to say they would like to keep him in overnight as his eye was still bleeding a bit inside !. My heart sank and was not happy to leave him as i new he would not cope very well with being kept in a strange place ! but we did not have a lot of choice the sample was to sent to be analysed that afternoon and they would get the results next day.
I couldn't concentrate on anything for the rest of the day i just knew he was not having a good time,had to have some Calms and some Bach Rescue Remedy myself ! ,the house feels empty i have such a close bond with him because working from home a lot of the time he always there to see what i am doing or have a  fuss and a muck about anyway it was a long night or seemed that way without my mate Ozzie !
Morning came the house had an empty feel to it,Oscar wasn't there to give me an early morning call ( usually too early 5am in the morning which is definitely too early ! ! ) he reaches up by the side of the bed and gently taps me on the arm and gives a little meow to wake me then i get up we have a bit of fuss and he is happy little chap again.

As you can see Oscar's left eye is a slightly darker colour and the
pupil is distorted compared to the right eye

You can see the Tumor in this picture ( the red part and is cloudy below it )

Lunch time came and just before 1 o clock we got the call from Christine and it was good news the sample had come back showing the Tumor is almost certain to be Benign ( The pathologist won't say 100% as they had only a small sample to test but are pretty certain its not Malignant ).
We set off to collect Oscar to bring him home,we arrived at Willows early afternoon and they went to get him and the nurse went through the array of eye drops he was to have for a few days ( that's a laugh Oscar & Eye Drops you might get away with it once,but after that he knows whats coming and either legs it,or becomes like the most slippery thing in the world and is impossible to hold on to ! ).When they brought him in to us in his carrier my feelings had been correct the little fella looked so distressed,when he saw it was us he did look relieved to see familiar faces again.It turns out he would not eat anything while he was there and he slept in the litter tray in his cage so he was also a bit smelly poor little chap !
We spoke to Christine before we left and she is not sure whether she can operate on his eye and was going to get in contact with some colleagues in America as they are a bit more advanced in this type of surgery,so she will contact us next week and tell us what the verdict is,then we can make a decision on what to do next.
We got Oscar home and he went straight to his food bowl having not eaten for 2 days he was starving ! anyway his eye is settling down and now getting back a more normal look.
We will update on what decision we make and it would be nice to hear from anyone has been through this sort of experience with there cat or dog thanks for reading this rather long Blog.