View Single Post
  #55  
Old September 1st 04, 12:34 AM
Karen Chuplis
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

in article , Priscilla Ballou
at
wrote on 8/31/04 12:23 PM:

In article ,
(Samantha G.) wrote:

In a much earlier posting, you mentioned your friend Melissa had a
kitten with special needs from the mother having distemper. I wondered
what that entailed. I ask because I have a kitten I am handraising,
and she has multiple problems. The vet claims she has a birth defect,
but I wonder if the mother (a stray) might have had something, because
she has eyesight, joint, and growth problems. She is also very
stunted, weighing only 10 oz at 5 wks. I just wondered if any of these
were the problems your friend's cat encountered?


Hazel aka Boo-boo is a grown cat now, but she's never gotten very big.
She's maybe 5 pounds after eating her dinner, but her big thing is lack
of coordination. Her hind quarters don't coordinate properly with her
fore quarters, so she staggers and falls over a lot. She can't climb or
jump and, as I implied, her balance is lousy.

I don't think she has any vision or hearing problems that I recall. She
is, however, a very sweet and loving cat. She and I had a serious
cuddlefest when I met her. Melissa says she doesn't warm up quickly to
people, but she took to me like a mouse to cheese.

Melissa didn't know what exactly was wrong with her because they found
her in a dumpster when she was a tiny kitten, IIRC. For years she and
the vets (who I would have expected to have some more knowledge) just
said unspecified neurological damage, but then someone who'd had a
similar cat took one look at her and said her mother had had distemper,
that that kind of neurological damage was typical of that situation.

Hope this helps!

Priscilla


My vet had four kittens whose mother had distemper to adopt out. They seemed
normal except for coordination and they shook their heads like someone with
Parkison's might. They said they were quite healthy aside from that.