dwarfism - whats's wrong with my kitten ?

HI everyone, its been a while since I have posted anything on this forum. Life has just been so busy !
The reason I am writing today is for some help finding more info on possible pituitary or hypothyroid dwarfism in cats.
i had a litter of 2 kittens 7 weeks ago, and the smallest kitten is 'frozen in time' at the size and developmental age of a 4 week old kitten.
The pictures speak louder than words.




This little guy (whom we have named GIMLI , after the dwarf in ' the lord of the rings') is very cute, but also very worrying. He waddles over the floor slowly, he cannot walk fast or run, he is squat in stature, small round body, head and shortened limbs. He has poor balance, and possibly poor eyesight also.

His teeth have barely erupted and have been like that for 3 weeks.
He does not eat normally, as he cannot seem to 'lap' at fluids like milk. He falls face first in the food mouth wide open, and hopes for the best. Therefore he practially drowns in any 'fluid' I serve him . This makes it difficult to ensure he is getting enough fluid to prevent dehydration.
He would love to continue to nurse from his mother, but she is more interested in weening the kittens and jumps up high to get away from them.
When I can, I pop him on her teat when she is resting.
It is very cold here and he sleeps alone in his box, I give him a hot water bottle every few hours and take him to work with me daily. At the moment I am feeding him tiny peices of cooked chicken which he loves, but mostly he is on a diet of HILLS SCIENCE DIET a/d TINNED FOOD. I water it down to a runny paste, and watch him closely as he eats, for signs of difficulty breathing (due to food packed up his nostrils)

I am trying to find more info on these kind of kitten/cats, how long they live for, and PHOTOS to compare to. Searching the internet has been less than informative, I only found one good website, with limited images.

I would like to read other peoples stories or cats with dwarfism, get some insight into what I am dealing with here, like possible future health problems etc. I have been made aware that he will not live as long as a normal cat.

 

that is so sad...what was his condition immediately after birth? Were there any stillborn kittens?

 

I'm sorry to hear about your kitten. I tried to find some info. for you without luck. Hopefully, someone else will be able to help.

 

Hi. You were 'Yahdah' on the old cat forum, right? Have you talked to any vets about this? If so are they the ones that said the kitty may have several medical conditions which you posted above? Or are you just guessing that this may be the cause? He sure is a cute little guy. It's too bad he's having problems.

 

Hi Omg how sweet does he look. I know this is off topic but when one of my dogs gave birth we had 1 pup that was tiny and at 8weeks old it was the size of a chihiua dog if thats how u spell it.
Anyway even though he was eating and drinking when the vet did a scan and xray of him it was found the food intake was not nourishing him the way it should have done and that one of his main artiries that transfer the food into the stomach was actually attached directly to his bowel so the food was just going straight through him in the end after having an operation to sort this he still made no progress and had to be put too sleep.

I am not saying this is the case for your kitten i think he looks sweet i am always saying if animals could stay that small i would have loads of pets now heheheheh.

Good luck and i hope you get the little one sorted he looks like a little mouse next to his older litter mate

mike

 

HI everyone, thanks for your replies.
Chessmind, - hi, yes I used be 'yahdah' on the old forum.
Gimli has been to vet a few times, we have discussed taking a blood sample for a T4 and check the thyroid levels , and took some xrays of him and some comparitive shots of a healthy 5 week old kitten.
It seems he is missing a few bones in his joints, or it may be that they are just not dense enough to be viewed on the xray at this time. This includes the disks inbetween the vertebrae. Anyway, the difference is astounding.
He is too young to take tests regarding his growth hormone levels etc.
and I am putting off taking blood for a T4 test until he is a little older/bigger.

At the moment he makes good progress daily.
Now he is able to take a few running steps, he pounces and tries to catch things in front of him. He is aware of his surroundings, and his eyesight is not as bad as I first thought.
He is very cute, and at this rate, I think he will be a healthy, but short individual.

He has a very good appetite, and has perfectly formed stools. no problems with his intestinal tract at all.

here are some more photos of the little man.



Gimli with this littermate/brother.

 

Glad to hear that Gimli is doing better. He looks like a sweetie! I love the last pic. It looks like he is very happy and smiling! He reminds me of those guardian cat statues with one arm up that they use in Chinese restaurants for good luck.

 

those are darling little kitties. both so beautiful. max was very tiny for a long time. at 12 weeks he only weighed 2 lbs. i didnt think he would ever grow. but, for him, he was diagnoses with a parasite that i think was interfering with the absorption of vitamins and minerals, preventing normal growth. he is starting to catch up now...very lean but getting taller and longer. good luck.

 

Hi i am so glad he is doing better he is so cute i so want a kitty but i cant so i can only dream.

Good luck with him

mike

 

I don't know that much about the gestation and the ovulation and that stuff of cats, but it really looks as f the one was premature. And i know this sounds crazy and I don'T know if it can happen in cats, but it can very rarely happen in people, it happened to my mom. ok you get pregnant but your body doesn'T realize it is pregnant ( with my mom it was 2 or 3 months difference) then get pregnant again another egg another sperm, not twins but 2 babies in there at the same time and then the both come out at the same time, but the one is extremely premature or sometimes the one pretty much kills the other off. which happens in the case of normal twins sometimes where one twin can block the other nutrients and the gets bigger while the other doesn'T grow so much if at all. so maybe something like that happend?? I would think that especially if later he appears to be normal

 

lil96 has a good point.

I know cats and dogs can have several babies from different fathers but still be a part of the same litter. Perhaps a version of that is what happened.