Goretober Day Six. The prompt was “Eyes”. Here we have a little chirpeh babbeh whose eye was forced open too soon. I didn’t want to look up images of what animals who have their eyes opened too soon looked like, so I used images of people with cataracts instead.
The hand in the top panel is traced, I got tired of trying to get it right, haha. But everything else is mine.
Don’t worry, it’s my eye, not a kitten’s! I took a picture of my own eye held open like that and used it as a reference, and pictures of blind people for the color fade/ cataract look. I actually did pull the boogery eye look from kittens I have seen, though. I rushed the shading on the rest of the picture, I was getting kind of grossed out looking at it/thinking about it too.
I was curious about newborn kitten eyes so I looked into it and have some things to report.
The eyes aren’t simply closed, they are sealed shut by some sort of membrane. There’s a condition in newborn humans that is comparable to a newborn kitten’s sealed eyes: Ankyloblepharon, in which the upper and lower eyelids are partially fused together by a single or multiple bands of tissue. I don’t have any newborn kittens on hand to closely inspect myself, so I’m not sure if the eyelids in newborn kittens are fused in the exact same way.
Based on what I’ve found, it’s like an ocular hymen.
Also, isn’t this Day six? You’ve got a day five already.
You’re right, it is day six, I’ll have to fix it. Thanks for pointing it out!
Hmm, I didn’t know that newborn humans could have fused eyes like kittens do. Very interesting. Thank you for sharing your information with us, the poor chirpeh may have been in more pain than we thought!
It’s not 100% common, but some kids are born with it. Most have their eyes fully open before they ever take their first breath of air and can actively see light sources through the mother’s skin (such as a flashlight). The problem is our vision is so horrifcally bad in comparison to just three years after birth. Interestingly, a lot of the reason for this is just because of brain size. Open eyes and birth sight is connected to brain function and mass, which is why all apes are born able to see (albeit poorly) as are some animals such as dolphins.
As for kittens, as you probably surmised by making this comic to begin with, opening their eyes is actively dangerous. As much as I love tormented fluffies, I would be remiss that doing this to any animals such as cats or dogs would render them likely blind for life, and would be exceptionally painful. They have to open at their own pace, or it could be disastrous.