Category Archives: Health

Jul 13 2011

A great day for Albert

He is healthy! 

Thank you everyone for your wishes for Albert’s fast recovery. They helped! Albert was well since we came back from the hospital. Completely well, like nothing has ever happened.

Here is our white boy with huge jowls (kindpåsar på svenska) (those enlarged cheeks that make a tomcat look more attractive for female cats. I think it looks silly, but apparently I have no clue what makes male cats irresistible!). He is back from the exam and feels victorious.

Albert (and his jowls, a Foreign White almost 14 months old)

Today we went for an ultrasound of all the organs of the abdomen (after not eating for 12 hours! Albert was a bit hungry, but quite calm). They shaved his tummy and put tons of gel on it. He did not fight, but he complained and talked to the veterinary and the nurse during the whole examination.

“Maumaumaumau…”

“Oh, a Siamese! A white Siamese! He is adorable! He is gorgeous!”

People found him charming. Cats know when you admire them and they like it. Albert does not despise attention, and although he thought that having your tummy shaved and lying on the back is far from good, still, attention is nice…

And – he is fine! No tumors, signs of diseases, nothing. There was a sign that he had a bad tummy (slightly enlarged spleen), but everything looked nice, his kidneys were perfect, the liver and colon were fine, too. Albert is pretty on the inside, too!

Albert became a father again!

And – great news! Albert became a father again today, this time in Sweden, in Viska’s cattery!

Bäckbykatten's Dixie The Great, picture by Monica Lindgren

This morning Dixie (Bäckbykatten’s Dixie The Great) gave  birth to 5 healthy kittens that are right now nursing cuddled to their mom! We are so happy! We told the staff in the hospital that Albert became a father today for the second time, and he got even more compliments, admiration and praise for being so nice and gorgeous boy.

He has no clue why everyone is treating him like that, but it is in his nature to accept petting and compliments as something he deserves by his sheer existence. He is a cat. And – a Siamese one.

Jul 11 2011

Albert feels fine

Albert feels well, and behaves as usual, except that he is much more at my side. Last night he slept in our bedroom and we closed the door so the other cats would not disturb him. Leroy was a bit upset, he protested for 5 minutes from the other side of the door.

Albert thought that all the attention was very nice. He cuddled and slept next to us all night.

I started working again today, but Jocke is at home with the cats, he has one more week of vacation. Albert ate this morning and he seems fine. And he is so happy. He is not weak or anything like it, he is moving and behaving as a strong healthy cat. The whole Friday drama feels so unreal.

Jul 10 2011

Albert was sick

We had a tough weekend.

Friday

Albert got suddenly sick last Friday. He threw up violently six-seven times until there was only saliva left and refused to drink and eat. He screamed loudly in pain when we tried to touch him close to his tail root and on tummy and dragged his back legs while walking. He did not have fever but something was obviously wrong. We called the animal hospital that is always open and they told us to come with him immediately.

Continue reading →

May 2 2011

The B-litter is here. Sorrow and joy.

We did not sleep last night.

Jossan went into a labor late yesterday evening. We experienced a shock and great sadness early in the delivery. It took a long time for Jossan to deliver the first kitten, and its intestines were out. Other than that, it was alive and normal sized and looking kitten. I called a pet clinic and talked to a veterinary. The defect was major, and the only thing to do was to drive there and have them put the little one to sleep as soon as possible. I cried on the phone but understood we must do this, and stay composed, since the delivery had just started. The veterinary said that the kitten will feel no pain.

We wrapped the kitten gently in a towel so it would not freeze, and put it in an open box that Joakim held under his jacket and kept it warm while driving to the veterinary. There they confirmed that nothing can be done and the kitten was put to sleep with a high dose of sleeping medication. It is so sad, I am still crying while typing this. We named the kitten Alan, after Alan Turing, a brilliant person with a tragic destiny. The first baby kitten born yesterday is a little angel now and feels no pain.

It was hard for Joakim to drive with the kitten, and it was hard for me to stay with Jossan and help her deliver the next kitten. It took some time, and she was upset and looked for the first one. I did not know if this was a defect that all of them will have, will something else be wrong, are they still alive…

I kissed and petted Jossan during the whole delivery. She was in pain, but she curled next to me on the floor, on a pile of clean towels and blankets, and pushed, supporting herself on my body and hands.

The next one arrived at 00:25, and still crying and scared as I was, I managed to help Jossan clean the kitten and cut the umbilical cord. The kitten was perfect, big and healthy, but I could not be happy or relax after the first shock.

Jossan delivered three more healthy big kittens, the last one at 3:30 AM and I was not sure if there were more, so we waited until 6AM and then cleaned everything, put the new sheets in a clean tipi, tucked everyone in and went to sleep. I took vacation this week, but Joakim is working.

Today I am starting to feel more joy about the B-litter. I am also very happy that Jossan does not know what happened and is such a good mom to the four kittens she is nursing now. They are beautiful. I think that 3 are boys and one is a girl. There is one Foreign White, one lilac or Foreign White and two are blue or seal or chocolate. But I am not sure yet, the colors can be determined with certainty when they are three weeks old, and sometimes even later.

SE*La Voix B-litter, 1 day old

The weight and time of arrival for the surviving kittens, born on May 2, 2011:

00:25 girl 100gr

00:55 boy 104gr

02:00 probably boy 102gr

03:20 boy 94gr

Around noon they already weighed 104, 106, 108 and 112gr. Jossan has a lot of milk, and they all are quite happy to eat and sleep all the time!

Apr 17 2011

PRA (progressive retinal atrophy) test

Jossan and Albert are tested negative for PRA.

That is great news, it means that the kittens any of them parents will never get PRA and become blind, no matter whether the other parent is a carrier or not (this is an autosomal recessive condition). The disease is not associated with gender. Since it is a recessive disease – two copies of the gene, in this case - CEP290  mutation are required for the cats to lose their vision. There is no treatment available for the condition.

PRA stands for Progressive Retinal Atrophy. 

The cats with two copies of the CEP290 mutation have normal vision at birth.  Vision loss progresses slowly and is variable, with most cats becoming blind by usually 3-5 years of age.  Some estimates are that 33% of Siamese and related breeds are carriers of the mutation, meaning that about 11% of them will eventually become blind later in life.

You can check which cats are tested so far and what the results are here. Click on [h] far right next to the cat’s name to see the test results.

Please observe: not everyone has tested their cats used in breeding programs yet. I have become aware of this just a few months ago, after a study in Finland has been done. Also, not everyone is going to register the results in Pawpeds; not all the breeders are aware of the existence of the Pawpeds – the cat database. But more and more reports will arrive with time. If you plan to mate your Siamese/Balinese/Oriental or buy a kitten from a breeder, make sure you know the PRA status of the cat in question. Carriers and PRA-negative cats will never develop PRA. Only homozygous cats will.

The goal is that with selective breeding where a carrier can be mated only with a non-carrier we will be able to minimize the appearance of the mutation within the Siamese gene pool.

We sent our cats’ DNA to Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, UC Davis, California. We got the results 8 days after the lab had received my letter with the samples. Read more about PRA here.

Information in Swedish:

Om PRA: http://www.pawpeds.com/healthprogrammes/pra_se.html

Rekommendationer: http://www.pawpeds.com/healthprogrammes/prarecommendations_se.html

Från rekommendationer:

“Alla köpare av kattungar som är bärare och kattungar vars PRA-status är okänd (där inte båda föräldrarna är fritestade och negativa) ska informeras om sjukdomen, om det faktum att en förälder är bärare och om den risk som finns om kattungen används i avel.

Heterozygota bärare kommer visserligen aldrig att få några symptom och då kan man lätt tänka att informationen är irrelevant för den som köper en kattunge bara till sällskap.

Men eftersom det inte alls är ovanligt att köpare av katter till sällskap senare ändrar sig och i alla fall vill ta en kull efter sin katt och de då kanske drar igång det hela utan att höra med uppfödaren till katten, så är det lika viktigt att köpare av kattungar till sällskap också till fullo förstår vad sjukdomen innebär och vad det kan betyda för deras kattunge.”

P.S. Goofy, dad to A-litter and dad to the upcoming litter will also be tested for PRA in the near future. Judging from Albert’s results, he is negative or in the worst case, a carrier, but cannot be a homozygote.

Updated, May 2011: Goofy is also tested PRA-negative. All the kittens that he and Jossan had are PRA-negative since both parents are not carriers.

Jan 17 2011

Albert hears well (as if we didn’t know that…)

We took Albert to an animal hospital today. Not our usual one, but to the one with a special equipment; we had to test Albert’s hearing. He is white, and all cats that have dominant white pigment, must not be deaf if they will be used in breeding.

White Siamese are different than other all-white cats; they are not deaf more often than non-white cats (that is – if parents are not carriers of red pigment). If you want to know more about white Siamese (Foreign Whites), you can read an interesting article here. Another interesting and informative post about Foreign Whites, in Swedish, can be found here.

We know that Albert is not deaf, but the test had to be done anyway.

Poor Albert, we had to let the veterinary sedate him and put all these needles it the little one to examine the response in his brain to the sound waves. Look at our poor kitten, he is sleeping. His eyes are not completely closed, and they put him special eye-drops to keep them moist since he cannot blink while sedated.

All these needles and drugs... Not fun! You know that I am not deaf, I only have selective hearing!

I did not walk all over Jocke's orchids because I did not hear his 'NO'. I just could not resist admiring them!

Well, his hearing IS excellent, even the machine said so, and now we have all the pappers if we are going to use him for breeding. He is our little furry baby, and he will not be stud for a long time (cats, especially male, are much happier and more relaxed when neutered. They think only about cuddling and playing, not about girls, girls, girls… maumaumau). But, it would be good for awfully slim numbers of white Siamese in Scandinavia if he had some white (or masked) offspring that could also contribute further to the Siamese and FW gene pool in Sweden.

BTW, there is no difference between masked offsprings of white Siamese and other masked siamese with ‘ordinary’ (non-white) Siamese parents. The white gene is dominant (if a cat is white, it can pass the white gene further, if it is not white, it cannot be a dominant white gene carrier and pass it further on its offspring).

Albert, almost 8 months old, is examined and healthy, and his hearing is fine (we have never had any doubts about that :) ). If an owner of a non-red color carrier Siamese lady is interested in meeting Albert in winter/spring 2011, you may mail us at info [at) lavoixcats.se so we can talk about it. We live in Stockholm, Sweden.

Nov 2 2010

Jaws

Albert is a bit over 5 months old  and right now he has both milk teeth that did not fall out yet and the bright big permanent ones coming out. Look at our little shark!

His sister Ada started losing her milk teeth recently, but our little boy is in a bit of discomfort, nothing is coming out yet, everything just doubles. He started chewing on and biting his toys a bit harder and more often.

Just like us, cats develop both milk teeth, and adult teeth. A kitten’s baby teeth start to appear when it’s about three-four weeks old, and ready to chew soft foods. When the process is complete, the kitten has twenty-six tiny, sharp teeth.

Between 4-9 months of age, a kitten’s baby teeth begin to fall out, as new stronger permanent teeth push them out and replace them. Teething can be painful, and the kitten’s gums may be red and sore for a while.

A close up:

By the time it’s eight or nine months old, that young cat will be a proud owner of thirty bright, sharp adult teeth. Sometimes if the old milk teeth did not fall out yet and the kitten has sore gums it is a good idea to have the veterinary pull the milk teeth out and make the whole teething process easier.

Oct 8 2010

Fireplace

It is getting cold in Stockholm and we lighted a fire for the first time this autumn last week. Albert never saw a fire before and he was completely hypnotized by the view. And – the warmth! The sounds!

Later when the fireplace cooled down he jumped over the protection and put his head into the chimney. He looks like panda now. I managed to clean his body, but not around the eyes.

But this is how it looked when there was fire!

Last week we tested Leroy’s blood values, urea and creatinine, and everything was fine. We checked him once earlier, before he was paired with Hannah. We also tested Josssan before she was paired. I thought to test the cats every few years, because one can detect problems with kidneys well before the symptoms show. If the issues are detected early, a change in cat’s diet can prevent illness and a possible kidney failure. Siamese are not more predisposed to urinary tract diseases than the other cat races are, but I feel that if there is something one can do so that they can live long and healthy lives, I want to do it. And that includes occasional tests.

 

Jul 25 2010

9 weeks

We’ve spent most of our time lately with Archimedes that got a reaction to their first vaccine. He seems to be on his way up, after a lot of help from us and some extra saline injections from the veterinaries. We did not have time to take the kittens’ individual pictures, all we do is attempting to stabilize and improve his condition.

He has no more higher temperature, his weight has stabilized and he started eating a bit himself. He is still more tired than the others, which is understandable, and we still feed him extra by hand.

Here is he in the middle, this evening, with his siblings. It was too dark to take a better picture with my poor camera. We are so happy he can be with his siblings all the time now. When he was feeling the worst, he went away from them and sat in one corner (more correctly – our Time Capsule, it is so warm and nice for a sick kitten). But we would always put him in his special bed and cover him with a small blanket so he would not lose too much energy on keeping his body temperature up. Poor baby, we hope he will get well soon.

Jul 23 2010

Archimedes against vaccine

It is a bit hard to type, since Archimedes is lying on my left arm and I cannot use it. He is resting on his pillow next to us right now, but he was sleeping next to his siblings in the afternoon (both he and they were very upset he was not there with them, so we put him back when they are resting. When they are running around and wrestling, we have to get him out of there, or protect him).

Here is he, to the right, sleeping next to Alfred (looking at the camera) and Ada this afternoon:

Archimedes’ body temperature goes up and down, and he is still tired, but we’ve managed to feed him regularly, so he got all the nutrients and water he needs. He weighs 30 gr more than before we went to the vet (saline certainly helped a lot). Leroy is licking him here, while Archimedes is resting on his pillow that we put on the sofa in the living room:

…

Jul 22 2010

Vaccine reaction

The kittens got their first vaccine on Monday, and they felt fine after that.

But, Archimedes started sleeping more yesterday, while the others ran around, very active, as usual, and when that happened again this morning, we weighed him and saw that he went down in weight 26 g since Sunday. He had a higher temperature than the other kittens, but still not high enough to qualify as fever (38.6 C). We managed to get the time at our veterinary within 30 minutes after our second call (we were very worried) and we drove there with him.

Archimedes behaved as if he were fine there, of course, he protested and yelled at the vet when the he was measuring his temperature (we have an ear thermometer, and the vet used the bad one, that goes into the rear end).

Archimedes’ condition (being tired, decreased appetite, higher temperature) is a reaction to the vaccine, as we thought.

The vet gave Archimedes an injection of saline under the skin, and an injection of antibiotics, just in case, but he will get no oral antibiotics, not to disturb his stomach flora (he is not that sick, he does not have fever. If he had fever, he would have gotten oral antibiotics as well). We also got special canned food, a/d® Canine/Feline Critical Care, to give him a little bit every few hours, diluted in water.

Poor Archimedes. The vet said it is because he has a strong immune system, so the body is fighting and he got a stronger reaction than the others.

I am so worried in spite of what the vet said. Archimedes is sleeping next to Jocke on a pillow now, isolated from the others, so they would not wrestle him. We fed him once, he did not like the food that much, but he got it in the mouth and ate it anyway.

I hate vaccines. Necessary evil. It is not the half-dead virus, it is the additives that most cats get reactions on, like people and human vaccines. It was Nobivac Tricat he got. I hope he gets better fast. The veterinary said he should.