Anyone ever see this???

BTW, hi, I'm new here.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has ever seen or heard of this happening before? I just had a litter of kittens born and one of them was born with its eyes open. Very weird to see. I tried doing a search on the net but couldn't find anything on it. I will be calling my vet tomorrow but thought I'd see if anyone has ever heard of this.

I lived on a farm for many years and have seen my share of kittens either shortly after birth or watching them birth but have never seen this before. I am wondering if this kitten will be blind later and also wondering if I should do anything to help it out like putting eye ointment in the eye to keep it moist???? As I said, I will be speaking to my vet in the morning but thought it wouldn't hurt to see if anyone else has experienced this.

Here are a couple pictures of the little one. She/he is still wet from being born and wasn't thrilled with my holding it still for a picture..lol. In case anyone would think I was making this up, I wanted to get a picture with the umbilicus showing that it was just born.

Here are some pics of the beautiful mom. And a very proud and happy mom she is too. Won't stop purring at her babies and everytime I had to bother her she rolls up and exposes all the kittens and purrs very loudly...lol. The first four are of her over this past winter and the last is her tonight with her babies.

Oh wow, I have never seen that happen before. I called my mom who has had kittens before and she said she hadnt seen it happen but she also said that the kitten may have his or her eyes open but still not able to see for a week or so. Sorry i'm not any help. After you talk to vet please post so we all know.

Very beautiful cat!

Wow....I've never seen that! Definetly let us know what the vet says!

He's soooo cute, though! and momma is beautiful!

I have never seen that either, but I would be sure not to shine any lights near him, maybe keep them in a dimly lit area if you aren't already.

I've heard of it happening but not sure of the results later. Keep him out of direct light as much as you can till you talk to the vet.

I'm assuming you have a pedigree SILVER tabby? She's pretty if she's purebred - what lines?

Yes, please be careful, and until you can see a vet, keep his eyes out of hte lights, and that includes lights for pictures.

Kittens' eyes are not developed when they are born, and the light can do permanent damage until they would normally open them, about about 10-14 days.

Thanks everyone. Yes, mom is in a nice dark container with a blanket covering the opening so she can get in and out but feels safe and secure and the kittens have no light and privacy. I very much assume that even though the eyes are open that it cannot see and plan on being careful about light with it but I thank you all for the heads-up on that anyway. My big concern right now is that I do not believe that the kitten can blink or shut its eye lids at this point and think I should probably put something in them to keep them moist but not sure what to use. I will put some water on them tonight and check with the vet tomorrow.

Thanks for the nice words about mom too. I am afraid she is not a pedigreed cat (certainly fooled my vet though, she thought the cat was..lol). But she is certainly a wonderful silver color with nice black marble swirles. Her undercoat is entirely silver colored, even under the black areas.

Thanks again for all your help, I will let you know how things turn out.

I found a website that talked briefly about kittens opening there eyes. Hope this helps some until you go talk to your vet tomorrow.
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...9652.Zo.r.html

That is weird we all had a thread a while ago about this

Thats very weird! I have never seen such a thing.....please keep us posted on what the vet says. And you have some very pretty cats!!

I've never seen or heard of that either! The mom is gorgeous...

Just did a little looking around and from what I see it may not be a good thing at all.
The link below shows some very graphic pictures of various deformities and conditions of newborn kittens, towards the bottom are some kittens like yours, but before that there are some two headed kittens so if you owuld find this disturbing please don't look.

http://messybeast.com/freak-face.htm

It's not uncommon and I've never had any deformites resulting from eyes open at birth

Yes, even on that site it says ocasionally a normal kitten is born with it's eyes open, but the size of the eyes, the fact that it is mentioned they can't seem to close and the width between the eyes would lead me to keep a close eye for other possible conditions.

So you've seen this before WellingtonCats?

Yup. Sure have. It's definitly not uncommon in breeds like Siamese.

Please do and let us know.

I never saw it in all the years I raised siamese, I didn't have the extreme wedge type though, I can see it happening with them....

Originally Posted by momof3rugratz

Please do and let us know.

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