Blind Cat Walking Circles

Here is an extremely specific question that I would love a vet to unpack. I serve on the medical team of a rescue organization and I’ve seen just about everything but this is stumping me. We have a one year old cat who was born with microphthalmia. His unformed eyes were removed and sealed at 7 months when he was rescued by the animal shelter that I’m involved with. We fell in love with him and took him home. He was found living alone outdoors and unfortunately we have no idea what his life looked like for the first 6mo of his life except that he’s negative, had fleas, and sniffles when we rescued him. We took him home at about 8-9 months and he’s just turned a year. In the last few months that we’ve had him we have found that he’s walking in circles a lot. It does seem to he triggered by a few things (like for 90 mins before he gets breakfast - something I can observe on a cat cam) or when there is a lot going on in the house. Still, our vet and the neurologist we saw are concerned. We’ve started him on omeprazole (no changes after 3 weeks) just to see what happens but they have recommended an MRI. I can find very very little research on cats born with undeveloped eyes and if the walking in circles is at all normal. The vet research journal articles are behind a paywall. I can spend the money on the MRI but I’m concerned nothing is going to be found and 3.5k lost. This cat has zero symptoms of anything. Thoughts?

Hello!  For the record, I am not a neurologist so you have already seen someone with more specialised knowledge than myself.  You mightn't have to worry about articles being behind a pay-wall because your vet and neurologist may well have access to them and likely read them, certainly now that they have seen such a case!  You could certainly ask.  It is good to hear that you have spoken to a specialist. Diagnosis can indeed be expensive and you are correct that some of the possibilities may not be treated any differently after diagnosis.  Furthermore, there is subjectivity here;  the right decision for one family and pet may not be the same as the right decision for another family and pet.  Good questions for your specialist in order to help you to decide may include: Is there anything that you might find, that would influence treatment for the better?  Can you think of a possible diagnosis with a positive outcome here?  What might a positive outcome look like for our cat? Once you have as much information as you can, you can only make the best decision that you can with the information that you have. We hope that this helps.