Since then we took her to the doctor many times to make sure she is okay. He told us that its all right, simply she has more pigments in here eyes, and its okay as long as there are no fluids.

Over time a lot of black areas started appearing in her eyes, and I started nagging the doctor. He still said that its just pigments, but if we wanted to be sure, we should take her to a detailed eye examination.

When we noticed that her pupils got deformed, and didn't respond to light like her healthy one we immediatelly took her to an eye examination, and they told us she has a high possibility for diffuse iris melanoma, which can spread to parts of her belly and lungs. They also told us, there is a chance that there is nothing wrong, but there is no way to make sure. They can try to get some fluids from her eye, but that doesn't give an accurate representation.

We decided to have her eye removed, because we think its better to have 0 chance for diffuse iris melanoma and it spreading than anything more than 0. Especially in this case where its very likely. As far as I understood even if we knew this sooner there weren't anything we could do.

This was a very hard decision for us, having such a radical surgery on our first cat feels depressing, and the chance that we do this for nothing makes things even harder. We saw on the internet that one eyed cats gets used to the new situation quickly, but that doesn't fully reassure us.

I'd like to ask you to share your experience with cats you know that had diffuse iris melanoma, or one eyed kittens. We would like to make sure she feels loved and can live a full life after this. Thanks in advance! Make sure you check your cats health regularly.

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[–] Atropos@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I've not dealt with this, but I'd make the same decision with the information you have. The most important thing for me is that my cats have the longest, happiest life possible!

[–] catlover@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 days ago

Thank you, its good to hear not only we think so

[–] waterbird@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 2 days ago

cats with one eye do great. they might have trouble judging jumps for a while and will obviously not be able to see well on the areas the other eye would have seen that her remaining can’t, but their bodies are covered in whiskers and you would be surprised how well they get around. i work in vet med and have seen dozens of these guys. literally the only difference with them is that they have altered depth perception and a blind spot. cats adapt very well.

[–] Sirence@feddit.org 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Our cat also has a visible spot on one eye. It's unlikely it is a tumor since she had it from the very beginning, but I still took her to an eye vet when she was about 5 months old. The vet said that unless it grows bigger, it should be no issue. That was about 1 year ago, it has not grown or changed in any way, but I still check it regularly. Reading up on iris melanoma I also already made the decision that we would immediately have the eye removed if there were any signs of it being a tumor. Cats with one eye can live just fine and having her suffer from a tumor would be much crueler.

I lost my first cat to a very aggressive, fast growing tumor under her tongue so I'm probably overly paranoid about this.

[–] catlover@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Thanks for sharing. I agree with you, and you are very responsible for checking it regularly. I hope the spot doesn't grow, as far as I know its entirely possible for it to not grow, and not to cause any issues

[–] 3migo@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We had a very similar experience. Our cat's eyes were green, but one of her eyes slowly started to darken and change pigment over the years. We would keep bringing it up to our vet who told us it wasn't cause for concern.

Eventually that eye was deep dark brown, so we went to a different vet for a second opinion and they immediately said "that eye has to come out" and referred us to a veterinary cancer specialist.

We had her eye removed and while we were nervous and felt guilty about it, it was a huge success. Our cat perked WAY up after recovering from the surgery and you'd swear she was a kitten again despite being 11 years old.

She adapted quickly and the one eye doesn't seem to impact her hardly at all.

[–] catlover@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

I'm glad to hear everything went well, and she recovered. Thanks for sharing your experience!

[–] residentoflaniakea@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I wish I could say something to reassure you but I can only admire her for having such caring humans to look after her.

[–] catlover@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Thank you!

[–] Aviandelight@mander.xyz 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My last cat had eye cancer that looked like this. We watched it for years and eventually had the eye removed when it started to deform. The pathology came back benign though. My cat did perfectly fine with the surgery and was back to his normal doofy self within 2 weeks. He lived another 3 years and passed last Christmas from another unrelated cancer at a ripe old age. I'd say don't worry too much just give your buddy their best life.

[–] catlover@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Thank you for sharing your experience, and I'm sorry for your loss

[–] krawutzikaputzi@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Our cat had another cancer, so I hope it's ok if I chip in. We also went to the vet like 25x times because he didn't eat and they always said do not worry. Imagine to have a hungry cat at home which can't eat, it was like hell! And the vets didn't believe us, they always said he doesn't look that bad. Until he looked really bad in the end and had tumors all over his tummy.

I would also take the eye out, because cats adapt so quickly and seeing your cat die from cancer is horrible. I hope it's benigne in best case and in case of melanoma it hasn't spread!

If things go downhill, you can contact me, because we now got a lot of experience with terminally ill cats unfortunately. In short what worked best were full spectrum CBD troplets. Our cat didn't like opiates, but the CBD troplets chilled him and he got some pain relieve. Although he didn't want to take them ;-)

So I hope you'll never get in this situation but CBD troplets also worked for us after a small eye surgery. Your kitty is absolutely stunning and I hope everything will go well! Best of luck!

[–] catlover@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you very much, and I'm sad to hear you had to go through all this pain.

I also had one doctor told us that she has no problem at all. He said if she can see, and there are no fluids coming out of her eye, than we are overreacting. At the place they told us its melanoma a specialized eye doctor examined her with multiple tools.

[–] krawutzikaputzi@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago

Thanks for the reply, sometimes I just have to talk about my beloved cat.

Your cat is lucky to have such good owners who will fight for them! From the other replies I figured that hopefully everything will go well and you can enjoy much more time with her! Our cat's disease made our relationship so much more intense and loving even through all the hardship!

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Damn, cat politics is rough.

[–] catlover@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Ah, my bad, typo in title 😅

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

mayor also means major in spanish but y'nkwo