Good questions needed to ask the vet

Next week I am taking my 9-month old cat Chivu, to the vet to be neutered.
Although he is basically a happy, healthy looking cat, there are things that worry me, most of all his seize.

Chivu is the only survivor of a litter of 4.
Two kittens died when they were 11 and 14 days old.
The 3rd kitten was put down because of cerebellar hypoplasia.
The vet and me suspect that all this happened because the mother infected the kittens with Feline Panleukopenia during the pregnancy.
She had never had her shots before she came to and apparently it is possible for a mumcat to not be visibly ill and still pass on the virus to her unborn kittens.
All my three cats have been fully vaccinated by now.

Chivus mother is a normal sized domestic shorthairs (4 kilo), his brother is pretty big (6.5 kg).
Chivu, on the other hand, stayed very small. He weighs only 2.5 kg and looks more like a kitten than the young adult male, he is.

Last time I took him to the vet, was 2 months ago because he had been vomitting a few days.
The vet could find nothing wrong with him, gave him some pills against the vomitting and put it down to food allergy.
It probably was, because the vomitting stopped and only returned once when I put the Tecni-cal kibble back in his diet.

Could his small seize only be the result of his difficult start or could sometthing else be wrong?
Are there specific test I should ask for, or am I just overly worried?
His eyes are clear, his coat is shiny and seems happy enough.
Only thing is, he's not much of an eater, but that is not too uncommon.
The two boys I had before weren't great eaters either.

Any suggestions would really be welcome.

It is very possible that the illness kept him from growing to his full potential. He is still a kitten as they don't stop growing until they are a year or so. Make sure to continue to give him kitten food until after he is a year old. This will help him grow tremendously.

Tempt him to eat more by feeding him seperatly and add wet food.

Good luck at the vets!

Cats from one litter can also vary considerably in size. Our cat (the largest as a kitten, too) weighs 13.5 lbs. and is extremely long. One of his brothers (the smallest at birth) weighs in at 6 lbs., while the other three run 8 - 10 lbs.. Our cat got premium kitten and cat food from the time we brought him home, while the others got supermarket food for the first two years, so nutrition probably played a role, too. Chivu will also probably continue to grow for a few months.

Ok, thanks very much.
It's good to hear that it may be quite normal Chivu stayed small.

I had his older brother Buddy, the big one, neutered relatively early (5 months) because I was afraid he might mate with his, and Chivu's, mother.
Maybe that's why Buddy's so much bigger than Chivu.
Another possible reason is, of the three, he's they only one who enjoys eating
Whenever I can't find Buddy, he's in the kitchen, eating.

Seperate feeding and tempting him to eat, are not really options, I'm afraid.
I have tried that before and if Chivu doesn't want to eat, he doesn't want to eat. Simple as that.
He may be small, but he is quite determined
With his mum, the hand-feeding trick works, but not with him.

I feed my cats a mixture of Royal Canin Kitten 34 and Sensible 33.
If I don't mix the kibble, Chivu eats the adult food and the two adults go for the kitten stuff.
The only wet food they will eat, is Whiskas pouches.
I have tried every other good brand we have here like Hill's Science, Eukanube, TechniCal etc, but they just don't eat it.

Royal Canin is recommended by a lot of vets, but there is unfortunately no canned food. I've had a lot of trouble getting JC to eat canned food (he gets 1/2 kibble, 1/2 canned). At the moment, I'm having a lot of luck with almo nature from Italy (cheapest at pets-nature.de), Miamor Feine Filets (a German brand; I order from zooplus.de), and Green Fish (Italian, available at cats-country.de or vitello.au) or Solid Gold (cheapest here at pfotino.de). I don't know if they deliver to the Netherlands, but they should, given the common currency and the proximity. Almo nature and Green Fish are mainly fish, whereas Feine Filets uses either chicken or tuna as the basic ingredient, and Solid Gold is lamb (dry) or tuna (canned). A lot of people recommend Innova (try zooplus) or California Natural (cats-country or vitello), but JC didn't like those brands. Nutro is another widely recommended brand. It is available as kibble or canned food (large & small cans, or pouches). Precept is another alternative. If you use the brand name and Google, you will probably find some Dutch suppliers of all these brands. I live in a really small town, so I usually order on the Internet, and have had good experience with all of the above-mentioned suppliers.

As long as you have tested him for the bad diseases (FLV, FIP, FIV, Distemper) and he is coming out negative, it's probably not an issue. I've had litters where the adult cats have ranged from 4 pounds to 18 pounds (sorry don't know metric equivalent), and all have been healthy. If he was stressed prior or after birth from a sick mother, it probably did stunt his growth. I have seen that within my household before.

AS for questions for the vet... I think you should just get him to rule out all of the diseases mentioned by momofmany first...

And then if all is well try and get him, like dragonlady said to eat more.

My fiancee thinks i'm nuts but i believe that a healthy appetite = a healthy cat...

AS soon as i start noticing their appetites tailing off a bit i always keep an extra eye-ball on my cats...

You could try some flower essences to stimulate your cats appetite...
Lots of love and affection will also do him a world of good if he's feeling... teeny weeny and a bit down on himself... The Crab Apple Flower Essence is good for kittens, it is supposed to get rid of feeling imperfect. The best way to apply them is to place a drop on your finger and massage it onto the tip of their ears...

I don't think his size counts so much as his health. You can be a small cat but a healthy cat, or a big unhealthy cat... Plus he's still growing...