Visual outcome in cats with hypertensive chorioretinopathy

Purpose To investigate factors associated with long‐term visual outcome in cats with hypertensive chorioretinopathy. Animals studied Eighty‐eight client‐owned cats diagnosed with hypertensive chorioretinopathy. Procedure Medical records from cats with systemic hypertension and associated retinal lesions were reviewed. Results Most cats (61%) were blind in both eyes at presentation. Presence of menace response at last follow‐up evaluation was positively correlated with presence of menace response at presentation (P = .0025), time to complete retinal reattachment (P < .0001), and gender (P = .0137). Seventy‐six of 132 eyes (57.6%) that were blind at presentation regained some vision following treatment. At the time of last evaluation, 101/176 eyes (60%) had a positive menace response, while 34/46 (74%) eyes with a follow‐up of >6 months had a positive menace response. Eyes that had a menace response at presentation were 17 and 37 times more likely to have a menace response at last examination compared to eyes blind for less than 2 weeks and eyes blind greater than 2 weeks, respectively. Female cats were overrepresented (62.5% of cases), and male cats were 4.2 times more likely to be visual at time of last examination compared to female cats. Conclusions With treatment, the prognosis for long‐term vision in cats with hypertensive chorioretinopathy, even following complete retinal detachment, is good.