Deformed Legs at Birth?

Hello,
I'm new to the forum.. But I am really hoping for some help. I hope this is the right place, if not I'm very sorry.

My cat Sicily who is approx. 2 years old gave birth early this morning to two beautiful kittens. We had every intention to get her spayed but she slipped out the door when our neighbor came in while we were on vacation and we were not made aware of this until about a week ago when we started wondering why she had gotten rounder.. Anyway.. Onto my question..

One of the kittens - the tabby - his front legs bend inward, almost like if a person bent their arms in, it would look just like that, like he has elbows. He also has 4 toes on each of his front feet instead of 5. His back legs/feet are perfect. He gets around wonderful as far as I can tell and is nursing great. He has a strong grip on his momma! He is a bit smaller than his sister (Calico) but that's all I can really see a difference in..

The vet said that he would look at him Monday as it did not seem like an emergency but a defect. We are already falling in love with this guy and he's not even a day old yet!

My question is, has anyone ever seen this before? Will he figure out how to live like this? Suggestions? Help? I want to cry for him, but he seems to be doing so wonderfully.

Thanks!

A photo might be helpful. But birth defects in kittens aren't all that rare.

When you say 4 toes on the front feet, do you mean 3 plus the dewclaw?

I will try to get a picture either tonight or in the morning, hopefully that will help. I found a site that has information on "Tendon Contractures" and it looks like that! So I am hopeful that we can get it corrected..

He has 4 toes on the front of his foot and no dewclaw, his sister has all of her toes and the dewclaw. I guess some cats could be born without dew claws like in dogs? I just mentioned it in case it may be of importance and may have to do with how his legs are.

Here is a photo. I hope it helps, thank you so much.

That is so sad.
I'm sure the vet might have some options of how to fix this though. At this age, their bones are still somewhat flexable, so maybe all it needs is some braces???
I'm thinking about you and the little one. I hope things work out for the best.

Aw that poor baby
I found this site while trying to look up Tendon Contractures to see what it looked like (Before I saw your pic there) and on the site, it shows what 13 weeks of splinting did, and it looks like it very much corrected the problem. Here is the link to that page http://www.hayaji.com/faqTendon.html
I hope this is correctable. Let us know what the vet says and sending vibes to this cutie pie

Even if it cannot be fixed, cats have an amazing ability to learn to get around with disabilities, and provided that this deformity doesn't also involve anything internal or progressive, he should live a very happy life, being a special kitty. There's no reason to believe right now that he doesn't have a very bright future in spite of this.

That said, just remember, kittens ARE very fragile for the first 2 weeks in particular and it is not uncommon to lose one or two to "fading." Back when I was a breeder, most of my kittens turned out fine but there were also a few losses.

Best of luck to you and your new little family!

A friend on another forum had the story to tell some many months ago:

A wild cat that I feed brought me her baby to raise on Sunday. I have tried to catch this cat to spay her but haven't been able to yet (has attacked me before). She dropped the kitten by the front door and sat there. I ran out when I heard the baby mew. Mama backed away a few steps and watched. She waited until I picked up the baby and then walked away. He is around 3 weeks old and has a deformed hind leg. Is perfectly healthy otherwise, loves to play and loves his bottle! A beautiful light gray.
I swear, cats are amazing (all animals actually). She knew that I would take care of him, it seems as though she didn't know about his leg until he started moving around and then realized that she couldn't care for him but I could.
So now I have a special needs child to love.

Click to expand...

I am happy to report that this kitten grew into a very healthy and happy adult! Your little kitty may just need some special pampering.

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

The babies are 4 days old today & doing great - both are super chunky. He is definitely catching up with his sister's size.

The vet took a look at him on Monday and he said he hasn't seen it but a few times before but that it does indeed seem to be a case of a tight tendon. We are massaging his legs multiple times a day and when he starts to walk we will start splints. He said that putting splints on him now wouldn't do any good as he needs to have weight on them to help stretch them and straighten them out.

So it sounds like a good prognosis then. Wonderful!

My thought would before he even walks put something on just for feel for a few minutes at a time. otherwise I would worry it would be like an adult cat witha harness for the first time

i was wondering how the kittens made out. my cat just had 5 kittens today and two have this same problem any suggestions

I think this might be the same story, but it clearly explains how the woman splinted the front legs of a kitten.  Hind legs tend to fix themselves:

http://www.showcatsonline.com/x/contracted_tendons_ofthefrontlegs.shtml

It sounds like you need a lot of care and time to do the splinting and it needs checking very carefully - to loose and it won't help, too tight and it will cause swelling.

I am letting ever  one know how a previse owner let her kitten who is five month old with deformed front leg never took her a vet. She now walk like a kangaroo I wonder what I can do for her if you now how I can help Miss Rosy Ro let me know I plan on keeping her she be through so much I love her like my little girl  her sister tail is broken  in two place can her previses owner get in trouble for not taken her to the vet? I love all my cat like children so I don't know how anyone can do this to Miss Rosy RO or her sister Bea

I just wanted to ask how it is because we just had 5 kittens and 2 of them their 2 front paws are also facing the other way and i dont want it to die. its perfectly healthy, its fat and can meow it just cant move very well. Its back feet have 6 toes...but i just wanna know the chances of it living...

Kittenmom101 said:

I just wanted to ask how it is because we just had 5 kittens and 2 of them their 2 front paws are also facing the other way and i dont want it to die. its perfectly healthy, its fat and can meow it just cant move very well. Its back feet have 6 toes...but i just wanna know the chances of it living...

Click to expand...

This thread is over 3 years old, and the original poster never came back to tell us what happened, but did you check out the link that Oriental Slave posted (above) that showed the white kitten who had splints put on?  That kitten lived and it's legs got all straightened out.  The link explained how the splints worked and everything.  So...I would probably talk to your Vet, and take along the information from that link and see what they have to say.  Hopefully they will be able to live a long and healthy life without needing to hobble around.

As far as the six toes on the back feet, that's called polydactyl (not sure if I've spelled it correctly ) and although it's not all that common, it's not that rare either .  Are you sure there aren't 6 toes up front too?

My cat Stella had it to, don't worry about him he's not in any pain and he wil larn to walk around just fine. you should make him aninside cat though and get his crooked feet declawed  if he seems to have trouble retracting his claws (Stella did she got caught on the furiture lot before we had her declawed). stella learned to jump up and down on the furniturelike a kangarooshe lived toe 8yrs oldshe sometimes got athertis  when she was older during cold wether wich is why we made her an inside cat although she loved to play outdoors  you should probably invest in covered ltter pan  r yor floor willbe overed i litter those pas make it ha to aim.

If the kitty seems healthy otherwise, I wouldn't be too worried. My dad once had a cat that may have had the exact same deformity. It sounds just like you described. Unfortunately I never met the cat, since my dad had him as a kid, and I don't have any pictures, but you seem to be describing the same bent front legs. Squeaky was the cat's name. The disability didn't seem to hurt Squeaky--he ran weird and couldn't climb trees, but got around ok. As far as I know the disability didn't coincide with any serious health problems. Squeaky was my dad's favorite cat, actually. Very sweet. Interestingly, Squeaky was also a tabby--an orange one--so maybe this is some sort of rare genetic defect associated with tabby fur? Also, Squeaky's death had nothing to do with any sort of health problem--he was tragically run over by my grandma in the driveway, if I have my story correct Point being, I've heard of this defect and it doesn't seem to be dangerous to the kitty. If anything, I might expect it to potentially lead to possible spinal issues, so maybe keep an eye out for that.