Murphey's Law, or karma?

In the midst of wetlabs and packing and tests and presentations, I noticed yesterday that Smidgen the kitty looked a little lopsided. Sure enough, when I looked closer, one of her eyes was open wider than the other. I invoked the only diagnostic that I remembered from neruology, which was a thing called the menace response. To assess an animal's sight, you can swipe your hand at their face. A normal animal will blink. Smidge blinked when I swiped at her right side, but not her left. Hmm. That meant either she wasn't seeing out of her left eye, or for some reason she couldn't blink it.

Sooooo, we went to the vet today and he told me basically what I already knew (that she couldn't blink that eye), but also that she can apparently see out of it, because it dialates and constricts normally. The main reason that an animal loses the ability to close their eye is due to damage to their facial nerve, but that generally also means most of their face muscles are paralyzed. Smidge seems to have lost only the ability to close her eye. So what does that mean......? Her vet's response was, "Well, I guess she wants to go to school with you tomorrow!" Smidge will be heading in to the U of MN for a neurology/opthomology consult to figure out what on earth is going on. Of course she had to pick about the least convenient day possible to damage a nerve, but whatever.... :-/ She is acting pretty much normal, but it's getting to be apparent that she's uncomfortable. I would be too if I couldn't close my eye! I'm pretty sure that Smidge damaging a cranial nerve is some sort of karma for my extreme dislike of Neurology earlier this semester.

Will post updates as we learn what's going on with this little kitty, amidst all the excitement of tomorrow.