The Official Publication of the New Zealand Cat Fancy Inc.
SWIMMERS
Sink or Swim? By Jo Woodrow Belonging to a few Facebook Breeder advice groups exposes us as breeders to lots of weird and wonderful things and the wealth of knowledge about all things cat breeding is enormous! The fact that breeders across the world are willing to share their experiences or ask for help in a (usually) safe environment is heartwarming and even though some people can get judgey or haughty, I like to think that even they are learning something in the process. So a couple of years ago, someone shared a story about their kitten who was a swimmer. There was a series of photos and a wee video clip of a 2-3 week old kitten moving like a frog across the floor with his pelvis and back legs flat against the ground being dragged along by his front legs. The breeder was a new breeder and was concerned about what to do. The advice ranged from ‘leave him be’ to ‘VET!!!!!!’ For those of you who regularly view these posts, the indignant cry for the vet is a common one but let’s face it, not all vets know everything about breeding cats and sometimes a vet really isn’t needed. In my own personal experience, this was the case. Back at the end of last year, I had a litter of 6 babies, 2 boys and 4 girls. It became apparent at around 2.5 weeks, that one of the boys, a black and white lad, was a swimmer. Born a nice weight of 132gms, he was biggest of the litter and I noticed that his littermates all seemed to be able to hoist their fat little bodies up on to their legs as they started to wobble their way around the kittening crate while he dragged his bandy back legs around like useless appendages. Over the next 24-48 hours, he started actually moving the legs side to side even if they weren’t under him, so that indicated neurologically he was fine, he was simply a swimmer. Google and Facebook groups told me a uneven carpeted surface is best to help with grip and even to get some foam pads with ‘fingers’ would help him to learn to use his legs properly.
Flash Cats
Within a week, with daily massages and physiotherapy - bending and flexing the legs and pushing them into the correct position to help him walk - his legs were working much better and by the time he was 5 weeks old, he was walking, running, jumping normally and generally being a cheeky ratbag along with his littermates. I saw advice about tying the legs together with little bandages or hair ties to help them sit in the right position but this made me feel nervous that either he or a littermate would end up tangled and potentially harmed by this process so I opted for the less intrusive process. When the litter were 8 weeks old and in for their first vaccination, I talked to my vet about it. He’d never heard of it so went on to his online reference guides and looked up ‘Swimmer’. Nothing, so I referred him to Dr Google where he found some useful information. While he was looking, we debated whether it’s a neurological condition and he was convinced it was as it sounded to him like the connections in his brain weren’t working correctly to tell the kitten how to walk. I argued that the advice and resources I had read said that it wasn’t neurological and more common in heavier kittens who just don’t seem to have the strength or coordination to get their back legs under them. The google search had much more information about this condition in puppies than in kittens but again, linked to size of the kittens rather than any other cause and the treatment for both seemed to be the same. There didn’t seem to be a genetic link in the studies on puppies we found. My kitten ended up moving to Hawaii with his brown tabby brother and I receive many updates from his delighted owners telling me all about his adventures and fun life he is leading over there with no ill effects from his interesting start in life.
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Issue 19/04
