Status / Details
Christmas 2016, Special Tails
Additional Info
- "Helena - The Eyes Have It"
About Helena
The Twelfth Save of Christmas
Helena is a 7-year-old Blue Cream Point Himalayan who was originally adopted from PPCR a couple years ago but recently returned to us, as her owner had some major personal and financial issues. When we place a cat, we always do our best to find a permanent home, but we also require adopters to contact us if, at any point in the future, they cannot keep the cat.
Helena came back to us in good general health but had a dark spot on her eye that prompted a visit to our trusted eye specialist. The specialist explained that Helena actually had two problems requiring treatment. The first was a bad corneal sequestrum in her left eye–a thick layer of black plaque over her cornea. As the layer gets deeper into the eye, the chance of its rupturing her cornea grows. Helena also had entropion eyelids, a condition in which the eyelid curves slightly into the eye and causes irritation by allowing the eyelashes to scratch the eyeball.
The eye specialist performed surgery to correct the entropion lids and remove the sequestrum plaque. Thanks to all of you who donated toward this procedure, which left Helena with virtually no scarring to the eye!
My Mom, who also donated toward Helena’s treatment, formed a tight bond with this girl after surgery. For the first several weeks, Helena had multiple eye drops and ointments that had to be applied four to five times a day, and my Mom made sure she got everything she needed. Helena was a little trooper during that time—which does not “go without saying” when it comes to cats and eye meds—and as a long-time astute observer of my own Mom, I was not surprised that by the time Helena was healed, Mom had decided to adopt her. (I guess that makes us sisters. I’m smarter, but Helena has better hair.)