I have 2 inbred cats from 2 litters. They both have the same father, and their mothers are sisters.

leslie48069

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Hi,

I am brand new to this forum.  My name is Leslie.  I am 45 and have 4 male, neutered cats.  Frankie is a big, fluffy grey cat who is 8 years old.  He loves to talk about everything and he is a lunch meat thief when I open the refrigerator.  He ALWAYS finds the lunch meat!  He is constantly rolling around and laying on his back!  We call him our Little Lion because he is gorgeous (and by the way, he knows it!). He is definitely the Alpha Male in this house.  Only one of the three other cats challenges him.....and it is one funny daily occurrence.  When Frankie lays on us, he must have his face right up in our faces and his body lays on our upper bodies.  He wants us to know he is there for sure. But he is also the one who gets agitated by us the most.  You know when he is done with you just by the way he flicks his tail back and forth.  It is like he is telling is to back off.  Frankie looks so big because of his fur, but he is a nice, healthy weight.

I wanted Frankie to have a friend, and I knew a woman who had just gotten a black cat whom she loved.  She was pregnant and did not want to risk getting Toxoplasmosis so I said I would take him.  According to the woman, the kitten was a girl.  "She" sat on my shoulder for the entire hour car ride home.  We got "her" on Cinco De Mayo, so I named "her" Maya.  I got the kitten a pink collar and everything.  Well, at the first Vet visit, I found out that she was a he and we named him Felix from there on out.  Felix is 3 years old.  The girl who gave him to me stated that he was like her baby and just loved him to death.  Felix is the most chilled out cat I have ever seen.  He loves anybody and everybody, when he lays with me, he does the kneading thing, purrs like crazy, and wraps his legs around me like he is hugging me!  I love him so much!  Felix is MY baby!  He worries me to death because he is an escape artist and appropriately nicknamed, Houdini as half the time we habe no idea how he gets outside.  He only goes outside when the weather is warm.  Mind you, I don't want him going out at all, but he just escapes.  I'm not sure where he goes, but I do see neighbors holding him and playing with him which worries me to death!  I am so afraid that he will be taken one day by someone as he is such a social cat.  Usually a couple hours after he gets out, I will go outside and call his name.  He comes running up the walkway and stairs right in the house like a dog.  Over the past winter he has gained a lot of weight.  I mean, he is a big, heavy black blob with a head.  That worries me.  The cats all eat out of the same long, plastic dish at the same time so it very difficult to know who eats how much every day.  I mean, I would hate to quarantine Felix in a room to eat while the others are all eating together.  They have been such good cats as they NEVER hiss or growl at each other when they are eating.........even when I give them an occassional can of wet food.

Then I was walking to the park at the end of the street one day when a woman asked us if we wanted a free kitten.  My boyfriend said NO and he thought that was the end of the story.  Of course, I wanted to see the kittens so I went on the woman Carol's porch.  I saw three grey and white adult cats and two different litters of kittens.  One of the mama cats had 3 kittens and the other had 4 kittens.  They were all grey and white and so darn cute.  The first thing I noticed was the scent of cat urine before I even stepped onto the porch where all of the cats and kittens were.  The next thing I noticed was that this lady had a screw loose!  She was not right in the way that she talked and acted.  So, then I asked Carol several questions.  I saw both of the mama cats nursing their litters.  One litter appeared to be older than the other litter.  I asked her if the other cat was the father of these two litters and she said yes, but she couldn't understand how a brother cat could get his sister cats pregnant!!!!  That's when I knew I was in deep and could not let this woman keep 10 cats/kittens who would just keep reproducing litter after litter of inbred kittens.  At that point, I took one of the older grey and white kittens and brought him home.  His name is Gizmo and he is now 3 years old and an inbred cat.  I called everyone I knew, posted pictures of all of the kittens on my Facebook page, etc.  Nobody was interested.  I just knew that I had to HELP all of the cats and kittens.  God put me in that place for a reason that day.......I am sure of it!  One of my Facebook friends told me to call a cat rescue called, Cat Tail Kitties.  I did and the owner of the Rescue said that I needed to get the kittens oit of that home as soon as possible and that she would take care of all of the kittens Veterinary needs until they were old enough to be adopted.  She emailed me a form basically saying that Carol would relinquish all of the kittens to me.  I knew this would be no easy task as Carol seemed to love all of the cats/kittens.  I went to her house and told her about Cat Tail Kitties and how they were willing to help get the kittens adopted if I fostered them.  Carol said I could take the first litter necause they were being weaned from their mama but the other kittens were too young and still nursing.  So, I already jad Gizmo from the first litter and then I brought his two littermates home with me.  Boy was I in for a surprise!  Frankie hissed and growled and smacked the kittens for weeks!  He was still getting used to the idea of Felix and then I brought three more kittens into the house.  Well, not knowing all of the diseases these kittens could carry, that they needed distemper shots and Feline leukemia and Feline Aids tests, I let them roam around during the day with Frankie and Felix and put them in a large dog cage at night.  When I told Carol (also the name of the Cat Tail Kitties Rescue Owner) she just about had a heart attack.  She said that if the kittens tested positive for Feline Leukemia or Feline Aids, my other cats would more than likely get it too!  Of course I completely freaked out.  Carol told me to take them to the Vet the next day.  Waiting for results of the SNAP test seemed like it took hours!  Thank God they all came back negative.  Carol met me at the Vet and gave me cat food, litter and deworming medicine since one of the kittens had diarrhea.  Boy was that fun giving it to not only the kittens, but my other cats too!!  Ome of the kittens had to ne treated for an eye infection and so did Frankie since he got one too!  :(. Carol told me that if the woman would not relinquish her older cats to me, that it was MY duty to get them spayed and neutered.  The woman who owned the cats only made $125 a month and there is a place near oir house that does spaying and neutering based on income.  All three cats would get fixed and distemper shots for $25.....all three for $25!  I told crazy cat lady about this and she said that she would get the females spayed but her daughter did not want the male to be neutered as it was her cat.  I told her that she was going to have more litters on her hands because of her ignorance.  She finally gave in.  I took her cats to the place called All About Animals and she came with me.  She wanted to change her mind once we got there and I told her that was NOT an option.  So we took the cats in one morning and were to pick them up the following morning.  Good thing the male was neutered because one of the females had a severe heart murmur and they could not even spay her because of the risk of dying on the operating table.  Carol was told that if that female got pregnant again, she would most likely die from her heart murmur.  Anyway, that was the day I took the other four kittens from the second litter.  This woman had a breakdown!  I thought I was going to have to take her to the hospital.  I told her that she could come over right then to see all of the kittens and she did.  She stayed all day long!  By the end of the day she told me that she wanted the second litter of kittens back.  I said.......you are just going to keep having litters of inbred kittens and that she signed a legally binding form stating that she was relinquishing all of the kittens to me and to Cat Tail Kitties and then asked her to leave.  She came back later that day and said she was going to call the Police!!!!  I said go right ahead.  I had the paper that she signed and it was legally binding!  After all I had done for her she was going to call the police????  I told her to leave and never come back or I would call the police.  That was the last I ever saw of her.  So now I had 8 kittens, imcluding Felix, and an adult cat, Frankie!  I was at the vet every other day with issues with the kittens and my cats.  It was a lot of work, but I knew that I was doing the right thing.  Since I kept Gizmo from the first litter, there were two other male kittens from his litter who got adopted oit to a girl that I knew from high school and her boyfriend.  I was so happy that they went together!  I also kept one from the second litter and named him Gadget.  The other three were adopted out almost immediately!  

So, now we habe Frankie who is 8, Felix who is 3, Gizmo who is 3 and Gadget who is also 3.  I am worried about Gizmo and Gadget.  Since they are both inbred cats, I do not know much about health issues that can come from this.  I do know that Gizmo LOVES everybody, but he is thin with a lack of muscle tome throughout his body.  He does not act sick, but one of the cats throws up all the time, and one has diarrhea an awful lot.  Since they throw up in the basement where their food is and also go in the litter box in the basement, I do not know which cat/cats are doing it.  I have a feeling that it is Gizmo as he is thin and lacks muscle tone.  Gizmo also squints a lot, even in dim lighting.  I have never seen that in a cat before.  He is so loving and lays in bed with me (since I have been sick for a year and a half with so many things), about 12 hours a day.  He does not want or like being pet on his back.  It is like it hurts him.  Everybody else that sees him says he is fine, but I don't think he is fine!  When he sits, he has such a big arch in his back compared to the other cats.  He always wants to be near a heating vent or laying up against me like he is always cold.  He used to be my 18 year old daughter's favorite cat.  he wove.uld snuggle with her all the time.  She recently moved out, and goes to college. When she comes home every week or so, Gizmo perks right up, practically body slams her and makes sure his scent is on her clothes, hair etc.. Gizmo loves her!  He does lay with me now, but it is not the same as when my daughter is home.  Can cats suffer from depression?  Do they each have their favorite person or people?  It seems to have greatly affected Gizmo.  Poor baby!  :(

And then there is Gadget.  He only likes our family and hides for dear life if anybody else comes over.  He is literally afraid of his own shadow.  He likes to cuddle with Gizmo, but when he lays on us, he does the kneading thing and sucks on our clothes, blankets, etc.  It is so bizarre!  I mean, he soaks us when he is sucking.  Why does he do that?  If he is in the bedroom with me, he never lays with me, but rather stays under the bed for hours at a time.  He is a large cat and eats faster than the other cats, like he can never eat enough.  When I had Felix, Gizmo and Gadget all neutered the same day, I got a call that Gadget only had one testicle and they had to search for the other one inside of him.  They took out what they thought was his other testicle and said it looked suspicious and sent it out for a biopsy.  I was so scared!  Then I got a call saying that it was not even a testicle at all and it was not cancerous.  So, Gadget had a HUGE scar compared to the other cats and it truly traumatized him!  They wanted me to bring him back in so they could do a second surgery to find the undescended testicle and remove it.  I could not bare to put him through that again.  Especially since the odds were 50/50 that he did not even have a second testicle.  I habe read that cats with an undescended testicle habe a greater chance of developing cancer and that scares me too, but there is no way I can see him suffer for weeks again like he did after his first surgery!

So, it seems as though my two inbred cats have issues that my other two cats do not have.  Do inbred cats have more health issues in general?  Do they live as long as cats that are not inbred?  

Sorry for the novel, but I really do love all of my cats and would be heartbroken if anything ever happened to them!  since I have been sick, we do not have a whole lot of money to put toward taking the cats to the vet as often as we should.  Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.  

Leslie
 

stephenq

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Hi :-)

Many of us would love to comment but I know that I don't have the time to read the "novel" :)  Could you write a "novella", perhaps a few sentences summarizing things with your question at the end?


Thanks
 

cprcheetah

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Yes inbred cats can have issues, I have one, he has a bad heart, bad joints all around and a chronic respiratory infection.  I know 2 of his 1/2 brothers have had heart problems as well. 
 

beckbjj

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Years ago a coworker gave me an inbred kitten whose parents were brother and sister.  I was relatively lucky with him, as he was physically healthy until he got into his later teen years and was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism.  He basically started losing weight and we took him in and that was the cause.  So I was fortunate in that he was very physically healthy for many years. 

His biggest problem was that the poor fella was just dumb as dirt.  He had no clue what was going on most of the time.  He would sit and stare half an inch from the wall for long periods of time, or sit with his tongue stuck out.  We also were never quite sure if he could see very well (or even at all) because he would walk into things a lot, but if he couldn't see he still managed to get around the house just fine (albeit with the occasional minor collision with walls or furniture).

So basically, it's a craps shoot I think.  Inbred cats can have very serious problems, or they can have relatively minor ones that can be worked around.  FWIW, my boy was just as sweet and loving as could be, and was just a great cat.
 
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