One pupil dilated, one is normal / small - help!

Is this an emergency? My Mom's cat Francis has this right now. She says one pupil was dilated and the other tiny, then over time the tiny one got to normal size. She called me (yeah, I'm an expert) She says he seems fine. He's eaten, napped, wants to be pet and is grooming. I told her to call her vet to ask if this sounds serious but she says no one is available. She's afraid if she calls an ER vet that they'll say to bring him in and charge her a huge fee. Any advice? I'll try to google it too but it's a weird subject to google.

 

no advice, hope you get answers soon.

 

Hi, it could be a number of things. The cat needs to go to the vet but most likely not at this moment. If could be high blood pressure, could be a bruise on the eye. It could be an inner ear infection. It could be Horner's Syndrome. My suzie had this problem. Most of the time it is something they can do something about if you don't wait around and get him to the vet. However you don't need to run there at this moment. It is not that unusual but it is usually a syptom of something else that is goin on in the body. Treat it like a cold. Don't panic but get the cat to the vet as soon as you can. Hope that helps

 

Thanks! She called a vet she knows and was told to bring him in tomorrow as long as he's acting normal right now. I've looked into it a little and it doesn't sound good...it could be a lot of things. Incidentally the cat in question is Francis, the cat that FDMB helped go OTJ thru me posting here for Mom when she didn't have the internet. I told her to test his eye for light sensitivity to see if it closed - I read that online.

 

I've looked into it a little and it doesn't sound good>>

Perhaps a little knowledge is to much right now don't jump the gun.

Your mom says
" She says one pupil was dilated and the other tiny, then over time the tiny one got to normal size.>>

When you have to worry is when the pupil isn't dilating at all. This cats eye is dilating so that is good news. It could be a lot of things so take a deep breath stop reading for now until you see the vet. There are to many things it could be you won't be able to figure it out until you see the vet.


If it was a tumor in most cases the eye doesn't dilate at all. They believe that is what Suzie had because it didn't dilate. She has a lot of other things going on with her also. She had a bladder infection and me and my vet chose the wrong anti-biotic so we never got to find out what the eye thing was.

Anything, there are a lot of things it could be. We all jump to the worst first. Don't do that. You might scare you mom and yourself and the cat. Just take a deep breath. I also have another cat that had eyes problems she has had them from birth so I do have a little knowledge. When her eye has an infection it isn't uncommon for the eyes to be different sizes well the pupil.

I am not an expert but there are a lot of "simple" things that could cause this. Hopefully this is one of them.

 

is there a chance he got hurt?

my civie patchy had this happen. she was a wanderer at the time (no longer is now) we don't know what happened, but guess she got hit hard enough in the head to blow hers out. now she has one reactive and one huge-nonreachive. otherwise she is fine.

Karisa

 

Or has she used any type of chemical on or near the cat. It could be reaction to that.

Years ago I had a cat that had an allergic reaction to flea spray and his eyes did the same thing. I bathed him and took him to the vet to make sure he was ok. However, one of his eyes never returned to normal. It did not seem to bother him though. He lived that way for another 15 years.

 

Hi Ladies-

I've stopped reading about what it could be. Why get all worked up? She's got an appointment tomorrow but his eye is still dilated. I'll ask her if he was hurt - I guess it could have happened while she wasn't home but I'm guessing no becuase he's an indoor only cat. I'll mention the chemicals too.

Thanks for your help. I'll post tomorrow after his vet appt with an update.

 

I remember when you first came here for Francis....I'll be thinking about him and your
mom tomorrow.