Vision and Hearing Loss in Senior Cats: Signs and How to Help

Vision and hearing loss in senior cats usually arrives so gently you barely see it start. As a cat gets old, her sharp senses soften. Sight and hearing usually fade so gradually that you may not notice until she misses a jump she used to make, or sleeps through the can opener that once brought her running, and you wonder whether your old cat is going deaf. Most of this slow dimming is a normal part of aging, and cats adapt to it remarkably well. But a senior cat going blind suddenly, from one kind of vision loss that comes on fast, is a genuine emergency, so the useful thing is to know which is which, and how to make life easier for a cat whose world is growing quieter and blurrier.

This is general guidance, not a substitute for your vet, who should check any change in your cat's eyes or hearing to rule out a treatable cause.

Is my senior cat losing her sight?

The most common eye change in an older cat is also the most harmless. If you notice a faint bluish or grayish haze in her pupils, it is very often lenticular sclerosis, which VCA describes as a bluish, transparent haze that develops in the lens of the eye in middle-aged to senior cats. It is a normal change in the lens associated with aging, it begins to show in cats over age nine, and reassuringly, vision does not appear to be significantly affected.

The thing owners fear, cataracts, is different. VCA is clear that lenticular sclerosis is not the same as cataracts: cataracts are white and opaque rather than a faint blue haze, and unlike the harmless aging change, they cause diminished vision. Gradual vision loss of any kind is worth a vet visit, but a cloudy-looking eye in an old cat is more often the benign kind than not. A red, painful, or squinting eye is a different matter, pointing instead to uveitis or the raised pressure of glaucoma, both needing prompt care.

Sudden blindness is an emergency

There is one exception that you must not sit on. A cat who goes blind suddenly, over hours or a day, bumping into furniture with widely dilated pupils, needs to be seen the same day. The usual cause is a detached retina, and VCA explains that the most noticeable sign in cats is sudden blindness, most often from high blood pressure (systemic hypertension). The reason to rush is that time is sight: VCA notes that if retinal detachment is caught and treated early, cats can typically get their normal vision back, but if retinal detachment goes untreated for even a few days, a cat's vision may be permanently affected. Because the culprit is so often high blood pressure, a cat who loses her sight suddenly also needs her pressure checked, and any older cat with kidney or thyroid disease is worth screening before it ever gets that far.

Is my senior cat going deaf?

Hearing tends to fade even more quietly than sight. The physical reason is simple: Cornell notes that a cat's eardrum thickens with age, and that hearing difficulties and potential deafness are often found in geriatric cats. Because it comes on slowly, the signs are easy to read as something else: a cat who no longer comes when called, who sleeps so soundly that a slammed door does not wake her, who startles when you touch her because she did not hear you approach, or who has started meowing much more loudly than she used to. You can check at home by making a sound she cannot see, a clap or a jingle of keys behind her, and watching for any flick of the ears. A sudden loss of hearing, or one that comes with head-shaking, an odor, or pawing at an ear, is different and worth a vet visit, since that points to something treatable like an infection rather than the slow wear of age. The same inner ear governs balance as well as hearing, which is why an ear problem can also bring on a sudden loss of balance and head tilt.

Helping a cat who cannot see or hear well

A cat who is losing her senses copes astonishingly well as long as her world stays predictable, and most of what helps is about not moving the goalposts.

• Keep her world in the same places. A cat maps her home from memory, so keep furniture, food, water, and the litter box where they are. That applies to what is in the box as well as where it sits: a cat who is finding her way by feel has learned the texture underfoot, so this is not the moment to switch her to a different litter. This is doubly important for a cat also dealing with a fading memory, and it is the same steadiness that makes the whole home gentler on an old cat.
• Do not startle her. A cat who cannot hear or see you coming can be frightened by a sudden touch. VCA advises that it is important not to sneak up and startle them. Announce yourself in a way she can sense: for a deaf cat, a firm stomp on the floor uses vibration to communicate your presence, and you can flash the overhead lights when you enter the room. For a blind cat, speak before you reach for her.
• Keep her indoors. A cat who cannot hear traffic is in real danger outside; as VCA puts it, deaf cats cannot hear traffic or honking automobile horns, so they need and deserve to live a protected indoor lifestyle. The same goes for a cat who cannot see.
• Lean on the senses she keeps. Touch and smell become her main channels. VCA notes that stroking, brushing, and combing may be quite comforting to a deaf cat, and a night light helps a cat whose sight is dim but not gone. A cat who has lost her hearing may also call out more at night, which is one of several reasons an older cat cries in the dark.

None of this is elaborate, and the payoff is large. VCA's reassurance is worth holding onto: deaf cats can lead normal, long, rich, and happy lives, and the same is true of a cat whose sight has gone, in a home that has stayed kind to her.

When to see the vet

Make it a same-day emergency if your cat goes blind suddenly or you see widely dilated pupils that do not shrink in light, since that can mean a detached retina and dangerously high blood pressure. Book a visit, less urgently, for any gradual change in sight or hearing, a white or painful-looking eye, or hearing loss that arrives with head-shaking or an ear odor. Much of what dims a cat's senses in old age is simply age, but your vet is the one who can tell that from the treatable causes hiding underneath it.

Biscuit's hearing is not what it was, and she no longer meets me at the door the way she once did. But she feels my footsteps cross the floor, and she still finds her way to the warm patch by the window without a fumble, because it has been in the same place for sixteen years. Her world has grown quieter, not smaller. That, in the end, is the work: to keep it the size it always was. Vision and hearing loss in senior cats takes the senses slowly, and a steady, familiar world is how you give them back.

Sources

• Cornell Feline Health Center, Deafness
• VCA Animal Hospitals, Lenticular Sclerosis in Cats
• VCA Animal Hospitals, Retinal Detachment in Cats
• VCA Animal Hospitals, Living with a Deaf Cat