Last night our European female had two kittens (on the 68th day of pregnancy). She is approximately three years and had a litter last fall.
The three kittens from this litter are well and have developed into nice Europeans. However, the result from the night’s birth was less successful. The first child was dead and the child who arrived four hours later had severely deformed hind legs.
They were backwards, curled up and completely stiff. In the first born kitten I could not see any malformations. The litter consisted of two kittens.
My questions are:
1. Are malformations usually caused by infections or are they usually genetically determined?
2. If it is the case that the malformation is probably due to a genetic inheritance, should I take my female out of breeding?
3. The three kittens she got in the last litter (her first litter) should they also be taken out of breeding?
4. Should you also avoid mating on my female littermates?
Hey!
I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability!
1. Since your female gave birth to a litter earlier with a successful result, the result on this litter can most likely be due to a viral infection. Even a uterus in “poor condition” can be behind.
2. My advice to you is to have a veterinarian examine and take the samples needed to see if it is due to a virus, if that would NOT be the case, you should consider taking another litter on her with another male to see what happens.
It may not sound like good advice, but if it is not a virus then maybe it may be due to the two lines that were crossed – with another he the result can be as with the first litter – completely OK!
3. Wait until you have checked the cat and possibly. tried to mate her again – after that you can decide if the cat should be taken out of breeding.
4. Same thing here; Wait until you have been told – infection or not – maybe test pairing and see the result, then make a decision.