New research from Canadian scientists has found evidence that keeping kittens with amblyopia in the dark could help their condition.
The research project, carried out on kittens suffering from amblyopia or lazy eye suggested that once the kittens had been kept in complete darkness for 10 days, their vision returned to normal after several weeks.
Co-author of the study, Kevin Duffy of the Department of Psychology/Neuroscience at the University of Dalhousie said he and his team of researchers noticed several years ago that kittens with one impaired eye had smaller cells connecting that eye to the brain, but putting the kitten in the dark seemed to change that.
Before testing, researchers induced amblyopia in the kittens by closing the lid of one of the eyes for a week. They were then kept in complete darkness in a purpose-built room with Russian doll-like structure and were monitored by infra red cameras and fed and cleaned by researchers.