What is happening in this 9 year old cat’s eyes?
This could be a complete clouding of the cornea couldn’t it, but actually the opacity is within the eye – its what we term lipid laden aqueous. Quite why its happening is less than clear. Uveitis might break down the blood aqueous barrier letting lipid in from the blood but the cat has mid sized reactive pupils and normotensive eyes (14 and 15mmHg). It isn’t fed a fatty diet and is somewhat pyrexic but otherwise not systemically ill so we have sent off bloods for a fasting blood lipid analysis. Olin et al back in 1976 published two dogs with this – ‘Lipid-laden aqueous humor associated with anterior uveitis and concurrent hyperlipemia in two dogs. JAVMA 168:861) but that’s the only reference in the peer reviewed literature I can find.