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