welcome back everybody!

[brody]

nice to have the forum back

in cat land we've been through some sad stuff ..
we had a little kitten who after much much work died .. very sad for everybody involved
but in the weird way the world works we have another foster cat who seems likely to stay with us - if he doesn't get himself killed first

his name is Arley (means brave) and he is a classic grey tabby - with a lovely smile etched on his face
he has mild cerebellar hyperplasia - which means he is a little uncordinated (we live with a profoundly affected cat too Flopsy Mo)
Arley is just hilarous - he loves to be cuddled in your arms, he loves to play, he is a big beauty - already - which is neat cause he's only about 7 months old

lucky us ..

[justine]

Aww I'm sorry to hear about the little kitty..

Arley sounds like a cutie! I'm just curious.. do you know what caused the cerebellar hypoplasia? There are a lot of kitty viruses that cause it.. or something happened during pregnancy.

[Mocha]

awwww, I'm sorry about your kitty.
I can't imagine having an uncoordinated cat around. That would be very funny. I would be laughing all the time.

[rayluckgoo]

Lately I've heard of a lot of kitties with coordination problems but this is the first time I've heard the diagnosis. Curious too...any idea what causes it?
We have 5 indoor cats: Mickey ( in photo) & Clancy (DSL orange tabby) They are half brothers. Sassy our eldest, our only girl and an appropriate grump, Willy...our black incredibly soft cat whose full name is "Mr. Pantera Play Nosferatu Wee Willy Abdul Pax Elliott" and Bugs our most recent adoptee...a huge, gray & white boss cat.

[rayluckgoo]

oops no picture...sorry

[rayluckgoo]

I think I figured out how to post the picture

[brody]

awwww so cute

generally, or at least in my experience, cerebellar hypoplasia is caused by a mother's exposure to a virus while pregnant
Flopsy's certainly is caused by that - she was born in my house and her mum was a shelter cat who had been ill

I don't know Arley's background but suspect the same thing
Holey Moley Mary was another cat we had - her disability was very profound and we ended up having to euthanize her at about 6 months old. She was actually less affected than Flopsy but never learned to compensate for it as well.

Flopsy is over 12 now - after her first birthday she was setting records at my vets office for longevity ...

[brody]

had ARLEY to the vets last week with our newest addition (Rumour) and his teeth are WEIRD - too weird to just be damage - apparently that's also consistent with exposure to panleukopenia ..more likely direct exposure to him (ie mum might have had it when kittens were born and he got it too)`
some teeth go weird directions; some are missing ..

still adore him though