Flat Chested Kitten Syndrome

Hello, first post here. My cat recently had 4 kittens, they are about 2 1/2 weeks old. Two gray tabbies, a black one and a tuxedo. A few days ago I noticed that 1 of the tabbies has a flat chest. After checking the others, the tuxedo one also has a flat chest. I had never seen this before, nor even heard of anything like this. I just did some online research and now know they have FCK. The tuxedo kitten seems just fine except that he seems to be having a little trouble crawling. I'm worried about the tabby though. He's got the "swimming" appearance, his front and back legs go out to the sides, and he appears to be breathing more rapidly than normal. I'm going to take them to the vet on Tuesday. I'll know more then.

I had a litter where one kitten (I suspect) had mild FCK and survived. I don't know if anything I did helped or not, but there are some exercises you can do with them to help out, and even home-made braces you can try to guide development. I'm no expert, but feel free to PM me for support. Hopefully your vet is familiar with the condition, mine wasn't.

Best wishes to your babies... be sure to update us! And post pics too.

Hi, welcome to the site! I sure hope your little one's appt goes well Tuesday and look forward to knowing what you learn.

Well, it's confirmed. Two of my babies have FCK. The striped one has a pretty serious case but is otherwise developing normally. He plays with the other kittens and is very active, but walking is challenge. The tuxedo one, I'm calling him Oreo(he's the only one I've named at this point), is walking but has a bit of a problem getting his hind legs to go where he wants. There's a good chance they will both grow out of it as they get older. The vet said that even if they don't, there's a good chance they will live long happy lives. I'll update some more on their condition soon. And post some pics as well.

I have Oreo and she is a Girl. I got her in November. She was the Runt of the litter and is growing out of the Fcks. She was born Aug 29. My Brother kept Pancake. The Vet thinks Oreo will grow out of it because you can barely tell now.