merlin's mum
09-03-2007, 12:50 AM
I want to share with you my recent experience with my current litter - who I hasten to add are now tearing around my living room! It's, apparently, a rare condition and there is not a lot of research about it but a paper exists which was published in 1997. Glasgow Vet School are doing some further research into it and into why my kittens were affected. I believe in being open and honest about problems which occur since this is the only way we, as breeders, can really work out how frequently a problem occurs and thereby go some way towards finding out how to prevent it/eradicate it from the breed. Anyway, enough of that, here's what happened.
After a normal pregnancy and an easy birth, Sophie's kittens grew well with no signs of problems until they were five weeks old. Suddenly, on the Monday evening, one of the boys developed a paralysis of the back legs. Since one of the boys had flung himself from my arms to the hard floor, we thought he must have sustained an injury and rushed him to the vets. Obviously our vet was very concerned but the kitten was happy and otherwise quite settled. The following morning, he wasn't any different and she felt we ought to try to see what had caused the paralysis. As he was so young, and therefore small, she felt he would be best off seen by the Neurologists at Glasgow Vet School and I rushed him off down to Glasgow. There wasn't any injury but he was diagnosed with a clot in his aorta where it branched for his back legs. My little boy was transferred to the Medicine team and his blood was tested to see why he might have developed a clot. He was much more anaemic than kittens of that age might reasonably be expected to be (given that they're likely to be anaemic when they have mainly been receiving mother's milk until that time and it's low in iron). He also had high levels of lipids in his blood - high levels of fat. This fitted with a condition referred to as Transient Anaemia and Hyperlipidaemia. This affects kittens typically around weaning time - between four and seven weeks of age. Usually the whole litter is affected and it's associated with high levels of mortality if not treated. However, it can easily be diagnosed and treated by switching the kittens and their mother to a low-fat diet. The level of anaemia drops quickly and the levels of fat in the blood usually return to normal quickly. Paralysis of the hindlimbs is one of the possible clinical signs along with lack of appetite and difficulty breathing, although none of my kittens had those symptoms. My kitten was at Glasgow Vet School for four days and returned home to be welcomed back by his siblings and mother without any problem. When he returned, he was walking reasonably normally and running around like a race horse - no doubt delighted to have lots of room to run around in again. By the following day, he was walking pretty well normally and running everywhere. Now he jumps and walks well and runs so that we can't tell him apart from the others. One of the other kittens had abnormal levels of fat and was quite severely anaemic but never developed any clinical signs either we or the vets could detect. They had their blood tested again about 8 days after they were switched to a low-fat diet and none of them are now anaemic and none of them have high fat levels in their blood. They continue to grow normally and behave exactly like we all expect seven week old, healthy kittens to grow.
The condition may well be caused by feeding the queen too high a fat diet during pregnancy and nursing and by feeding the kittens too high a fat diet when they start to be weaned.
I want everyone to know about the existence of this condition so that, no matter how rarely it occurs, no kittens are put to sleep because they have, apparently, sustained an injury which causes paralysis of the hind legs from which their vet thinks they might not recover. Very few vets will know of this condition. Equally, I'd rather feel that breeders will not lose kittens - perhaps even a whole litter - to a condition which can very easily be diagnosed and treated. Sophie's breeder was told, back in 1987, not to feed Siamese cats on a diet higher than 14% fat and has had no problems since then. Having had a litter go through this experience, she has never fed a wholly commercial dry diet to her cats since.
Sophie was fed on Royal Canin's Babycat 34 and Kitten 34 during her pregnancy and whilst nursing her kittens - right up to when the problem was first experienced. Our kittens were weaned on mainly Babycat 34 with some Applaws tins (which is fine as it's not high in fat). Whilst Royal Canin make a Siamese diet, which is probably a good diet for Siamese to be on generally, it's likely to be too low in fat for a sole diet whilst pregnant and it's probably not suitable for kittens to be weaned on to (bearing in mind that they say it's definitely not!). I'm not suggesting a solution to the issue of diet but my experience this time has certainly made me feel strongly that the 'no more than 14% fat' suggestion has definite merit and I intend to stick to this for the future.
Glasgow Vet School, together with Bristol, are researching my litter's experience further and I will provide more information as it becomes available, but for now that's all there is. If you, or anyone you know, has had an experience similar to this - even if this condition was not diagnosed, I would be interested to hear about it.
After a normal pregnancy and an easy birth, Sophie's kittens grew well with no signs of problems until they were five weeks old. Suddenly, on the Monday evening, one of the boys developed a paralysis of the back legs. Since one of the boys had flung himself from my arms to the hard floor, we thought he must have sustained an injury and rushed him to the vets. Obviously our vet was very concerned but the kitten was happy and otherwise quite settled. The following morning, he wasn't any different and she felt we ought to try to see what had caused the paralysis. As he was so young, and therefore small, she felt he would be best off seen by the Neurologists at Glasgow Vet School and I rushed him off down to Glasgow. There wasn't any injury but he was diagnosed with a clot in his aorta where it branched for his back legs. My little boy was transferred to the Medicine team and his blood was tested to see why he might have developed a clot. He was much more anaemic than kittens of that age might reasonably be expected to be (given that they're likely to be anaemic when they have mainly been receiving mother's milk until that time and it's low in iron). He also had high levels of lipids in his blood - high levels of fat. This fitted with a condition referred to as Transient Anaemia and Hyperlipidaemia. This affects kittens typically around weaning time - between four and seven weeks of age. Usually the whole litter is affected and it's associated with high levels of mortality if not treated. However, it can easily be diagnosed and treated by switching the kittens and their mother to a low-fat diet. The level of anaemia drops quickly and the levels of fat in the blood usually return to normal quickly. Paralysis of the hindlimbs is one of the possible clinical signs along with lack of appetite and difficulty breathing, although none of my kittens had those symptoms. My kitten was at Glasgow Vet School for four days and returned home to be welcomed back by his siblings and mother without any problem. When he returned, he was walking reasonably normally and running around like a race horse - no doubt delighted to have lots of room to run around in again. By the following day, he was walking pretty well normally and running everywhere. Now he jumps and walks well and runs so that we can't tell him apart from the others. One of the other kittens had abnormal levels of fat and was quite severely anaemic but never developed any clinical signs either we or the vets could detect. They had their blood tested again about 8 days after they were switched to a low-fat diet and none of them are now anaemic and none of them have high fat levels in their blood. They continue to grow normally and behave exactly like we all expect seven week old, healthy kittens to grow.
The condition may well be caused by feeding the queen too high a fat diet during pregnancy and nursing and by feeding the kittens too high a fat diet when they start to be weaned.
I want everyone to know about the existence of this condition so that, no matter how rarely it occurs, no kittens are put to sleep because they have, apparently, sustained an injury which causes paralysis of the hind legs from which their vet thinks they might not recover. Very few vets will know of this condition. Equally, I'd rather feel that breeders will not lose kittens - perhaps even a whole litter - to a condition which can very easily be diagnosed and treated. Sophie's breeder was told, back in 1987, not to feed Siamese cats on a diet higher than 14% fat and has had no problems since then. Having had a litter go through this experience, she has never fed a wholly commercial dry diet to her cats since.
Sophie was fed on Royal Canin's Babycat 34 and Kitten 34 during her pregnancy and whilst nursing her kittens - right up to when the problem was first experienced. Our kittens were weaned on mainly Babycat 34 with some Applaws tins (which is fine as it's not high in fat). Whilst Royal Canin make a Siamese diet, which is probably a good diet for Siamese to be on generally, it's likely to be too low in fat for a sole diet whilst pregnant and it's probably not suitable for kittens to be weaned on to (bearing in mind that they say it's definitely not!). I'm not suggesting a solution to the issue of diet but my experience this time has certainly made me feel strongly that the 'no more than 14% fat' suggestion has definite merit and I intend to stick to this for the future.
Glasgow Vet School, together with Bristol, are researching my litter's experience further and I will provide more information as it becomes available, but for now that's all there is. If you, or anyone you know, has had an experience similar to this - even if this condition was not diagnosed, I would be interested to hear about it.