It's been stressful, but Iris and May are doing very well!
A recap: Iris and May underwent surgeries to fix their eyelids, which didn't form all of the way during their development so they were actually born with out the lower, outer part of their top eyelids. This meant the kitties were very uncomfortable with their fur constantly poking into their eyes, scratching their corneas.
Let's start with Iris's update first:
--Iris had her surgery April 11, 2013. A reminder about Iris's eyes pre-surgery: that one of Iris's eyes was too damaged to save, so she had an eye removed and the eyelid of her functioning eye repaired. She had ulcers on her eyes because of the scratching on her cornea from her own fur.
--On April 24th, she went in for a check up, cleaning around the eyes, and suture removal. She was doing very well! When Iris was examined back in July of 2012, the vets couldn't even see the back of her eye because of the inflammation and damage to her eye. At her first checkup, they could see the back of her eye and there was no evidence of scratches on the cornea of her eye. Hooray!
--In her check up May 8th, 2013, Iris again looked really good and the vets could see the back of their eye very clearly. AND in her check up May 31, 2013, the vets were very pleased with her recovery and recommended a recheck in 4-5 months!
Below on the left is Iris with her cone, in the middle is Iris on the new scratching post looking like an owl, and on the right is Iris looking like cuteness embodied.
May's update:
--May also had her surgery on April 11th. (If you look at the pictures in earlier posts, you can see what her eyelids were like before the surgery.) May also had ulcers on her eyes because of the constant irritation from her own fur.
--At her check-up on April 24th, she appeared comfortable and had visual responses. Her eyes did have some inflammation. The grafts looked "slightly devitalized", but the vets were hopeful they would heal appropriately. There was no evidence of scratches on her cornea, which meant no hairs were poking into her eyes anymore.
--On the May 8th checkup, her grafts weren't doing much better. The vets adjusted her medication to hasten the healing of her eyes and hoped for the best.
--On May 31st, May was doing much better! The grafts need a bit more time to heal, but she seemed very comfortable and no scratches were evident on her corneas. In one of May's eyes, she has low vision due to scarring, but her other eye looks healthy. Recheck in 4-5 months!
Below on the left is May's eyes after surgery. You can see her stripy cone. In the middle picture, you can see May's eye after the repair, but still some inflammation. In the picture on the right, is May looking cozy.
These life-changing surgeries were made possible by the following:
-Thank you to everyone who helped make these happy stories possible.
-A huge shout-out to May and Iris's adopters, Emily and Trevor. They adopted these special needs kittens long before their surgery. They knew there were a lot of maybes involved but took a leap of faith!! They also found these kittens absolutely adorable and lovable despite their disabilities. This is what true rescue is all about.
-Also a humongous shout-out to our former medical coordinator Laura - without whom this never would have happened!
-Lastly, thank you Trio Animal Foundation and other donors from all over the US and Canada who gave a lion's share of the funds necessary for the kitties' surgeries, and numerous people and organizations online who reposted to get the word out! Yays and thank yous all around!
Happy life, kitties!
