Life’s little deformities 2
Posted by: Fats in: Fats, Vitamins & Minerals > Wika at HirapThe other night, Trevor and I went out for a walk and suddenly this little black kitten came up behind me. It was so cute, and it wouldn’t go away. We tried walking off but it followed and meowed. It was so friendly and so cuddly and it reminded me of the poor little deformed lovey kitten kitten that Trevor and I picked up just a day before we flew to Singapore. We wondered if this lively little black kitten was its sibling.
July 22, we did decide to put the little deformed kitten in a warm towel and inside a shoe box with some food, and placed it under the stairs outside our apartment where we saw this black and white cat which I was sure was its mother. The following morning on our way off to the airport, the shoe box was gone - obviously cleaned out by the maintenance people who come everyday in the early morning to clean and pick up everybody’s garbage.
So we never really knew whether that little deformed kitten died, lived, or was found by its mother.
Then suddenly - again - we started hearing this little meowing late last night. It seemed to be coming from our neighbor’s shed downstairs, the same shed where we found little deformed kitty. So in the morning, I texted our neighbor asking to check their shed if they find any kitten or hear anything.
I kept hearing the faint sound so I always looked out our window to see if the mother or a kitten was around. Then all of a sudden, there I saw the black and white cat out in our neighbor’s backyard with the kitten in its mouth. Trevor and I immediately went down and asked our neighbor if we could see the cat and the kitten.
Our neighbor explained that she found the kitten in the shed, exactly in the same place as before, and she sad that it was the same kitten. We were so shocked. She explained that the kitten had deformed legs and couldn’t walk.
We went to the backyard and saw the cat - she was so friendly to Trevor, as if asking us to take her little deformed kitty. We saw the kitten and it looked in such a horrible state - it was all wet, wrinkled, and its backside was all sore with wounds and fluids oozing out of its genitals and its anus a bit bloody. It also smelled quite bad, it looked sch a hopeless case …
We took it to the apartment ad I cleaned it up and washed it with warm water, and then placed it in a dry towel and a hot water bottle to dry. The mother followed but she was too nervous to come into our apartment. Trevor decided to give the mother some food but it just got the food and took off.
So we were left with little deformed kitty again. Below is a photo of her.
She could move a bit, meow loudly every now and then, and sleep. When she woke up we tried feeding her. Her fur dried in a short while and she seemed alright, but it all looked really rather bad. Below is a photo of her with one of her deformed legs sticking out.
Then suddenly it dawned on me that the deformed kitten we got earlier had more black than white. I looked at the photo I took last July 22 and indeed - this was a different kitten! Trevor and I was so surprised! My god, I thought, how many deformed kittens did mother have?
Below is a photo of the first deformed kitten that we found. You can see her little white food sticking out from under her tail.
I began to accept the possibility that our first deformed kitten did not survive, and the possibility that this second deformed kitten won’t either. This second kitten was so much much worse with its wounds and its protruding backside indicating that it couldn’t poo or pee properly … It felt so horribly sad.
But after Little Kitty, I was more capable of taking these sad realities much easier now. Such is life, I thought. I remembered how precious and beautiful Little Kitty was, and how ugly and still beautiful these two deformed kittens were.
Second little deformed kitty died tonight, quite peacefully and at least on a warm dry mat…
I started wondering if the kittens were deformed because of some genetic anomaly or perhaps could be because of harmful chemicals in the environment absorbed by the mother or father. I looked it up on the internet and found that such deformities were not so rare! And many actually grow up to be normal cats if cared for by humans. In fact, it is possible that as the kittens grew their twisted legs straightened a bit or became more or less functional, or at least they learned to compensate.
As for stray cats, it could be impossible for such kittens to survive. Our second deformed kitty seemed really badly incontinent/constipated and the ulcerations on its backside and tail looked really bad… So it seems that bowel functions were also abnormal …
Anyway, I learned that the deformities could be genetic (Radial Hypoplasia or Twisty Cat Condition) or could be developmental, that is, the legs could have been cramped in the womb especially in the case of a very large litter, or deformed during very hard labor, or the kitten’s umbilical cord could’ve wrapped around the leg, constricting blood supply to the affected limbs.
I wonder if the mother cat was trying to get rid of her twisty kittens by dropping them in that shed? However, she did manage to nurse these kittens until they were fairly big, perhaps two months or so. It must’ve been s difficult for her …
At any rate, it seems that when detected early enough, twisty kittens can lead fairly normal lives. A good resource on the condition is Twisty Limbs in Kittens, showing that not all twisty cats need to be euthanized.
If that little black kitten that followed us is indeed a sibling of these twisty kittens, then it’s comforting to know that at least a kitten survived in the litter…
