Kittens with folded ears that unfold

[htg]

A year ago my roommate brought home a small grey kitten with folded ears. As she grew up, her ears stood up like normal but were of a smaller size then average.

Due to a mix up with the neuter clinic, the kitty was housed with my male (who got neutered) but sent home unspayed because she was in heat and 'too small to spay'... of course one time is all it takes when you have random mixie kitties. Anyway, the roommate is anti kitty-abortion and we have the means to keep a whole litter of kittens.

We have 4 lovely kittens, all their ears looked normal at first, but as they opened their eyes their ears seem folded down. The largest kitten's ears are already coming back up, and seem a bit small. The other 3 kittens all have folded down ears still.

I've searched and searched but I can't find any other accounts of kitties like this. They seem a little skittish, bawling loudly for their mama whenever we pick them up and seem a bit behind in their development. They are 7 weeks old now, but look more like 5 week old kittens. I worry that perhaps this folded ear thing is a sign of some genetic illness?

Their mother is a very petite cat, weighing in at 4.5 pounds at 1 year old and a good healthy weight. The kittens were born very small, only 75 grams on average. Could they just need some time to catch up?

Also, it figures that when we wanted to keep all 4 kittens, 6 people have asked us for one.

I'll try to get some pictures for you all to see what I'm talking about.

 

[northernglow]

It is a dominant genetic illness. It's very important that you spay and neuter the kittens before they go to their new homes to make sure they are not bred. The cats have the Fold-gene which can cause osteochondrodysplasia (painful bone structure issues) if the cats are poorly bred (not tested, not breeding quality). All cats with the fold-gene should be x-rayed before breeding so it's not passed on. Also arthritis is common in randomly bred fold ear cats. It's quite obvious that they have Scottish Fold in their lines or then it's a new mutation. Try to feel their tails (flexibility), do they seem normal if you compare to a regular straight ear cat? Are you perhaps located in Europe?

Scottish Fold kittens are born with straight ears, but they fold when they are around 21 days old. It's normal for poorly bred kittens to have their ears come back up and are usually then mistaken as Scottish Straights which can cause lots of problems because when two cats with the fold-gene are mated they may get sick kittens because they get double amount of the gene. Even if the ears come back up they have the fold-gene. (Folds are supposed to be bred with a British Shorthair in every generation to get rid of the possible health issues, two Scottish Folds are not allowed to be bred together). Average Scottish Fold kitten should weigh 90-110g.
This is very popular breed amongst backyard breeders/kitten mills which is why there are some seriously sick kittens out there and why spaying/neutering unprofessionally bred kittens is very important.

 

[htg]

Thanks for your response.

We're located in central Indiana, USA. There are not a lot of Scottish Fold cats around here and these kittens and their mother don't really resemble the breed other then the kittens' folded ears. Their ears were obviously folded downwards by the time their eyes were opening. Their tails are normal, very flexible. And the think I'm weird for messing with them! The mother cat had folded ears that stood up after she got a little older. The father cat is totally unrelated and has very little chance of being part Scottish Fold (big orange barn cat offspring).

Is there anything more I can do now to help prevent the kittens from having arthritis problems? I'm afraid to let them leave but I'm pretty sure my fiancee with pitch a fit if we keep all 4.

 

[northernglow]

Don't worry. They might be perfectly healthy kittens. If they are more prone to arthritis, they can get it at very young age, even when only 6 months old. If they get it (which obviously isn't the case always) there are medicines to keep it under control. It can't really be stopped from developing if it's going to affect the cats, but I haven't had to deal with it myself (I have a healthy Scottish Fold, pic next to my name) so if they get it, I'm sure the vets would know how to treat it and people here might have cats with arthritis who could tell you their experiences about it (the health section of this forum).

If you are going to keep them, keep an eye on them, how they behave, do they let you touch their paws, tail etc. or if they start to get uncomfortable when being touched.

The fold-gene acts a bit weird. Sometimes if the cat has folded ears, the ears can come up if the cat is stressed, pregnant or sick. They can stay that way after the cat is back to it's normal self, but that usually happens only if the ears weren't 'properly' folded in the first place. I'll add a pic here of a "Scottish Fold" (not registered, from a kitten mill) who has had folded ears which now are almost straight. Do yours look anything like this?

 

[htg]

Lets see if I can get pictures to work

This is Gwen, the mother cat a couple weeks after we brought her home.


This is Gwen, the mother with all the kittens on day 1.


Here are Casey & Rebel when their eyes opened (they were first, Casey is the largest & Rebel is the smallest)


Here they are at 4 weeks old


Same 2 kittens at 5 weeks old.


This is their sister Wren, she has straight ears.

 

[northernglow]

Did Wren always have straight ears? If she did, then she is not affected by the fold-gene. The others clearly have it and it's odd they folded so young (I can see it even in the 1 day old pic), but then again all litters are individuals after all. My brit stud has sired one Scottish Fold litter and all of them had completely straight ears until they started to reach 3rd week of their life (2/5 folded).

They sure are cute!

I hope they are healthy and stay that way.

 

[htg]

The fact that they were born folded, except Wren, is why I wonder if this isn't the 'normal' Scottish fold folding gene, but some other folding gene or cartilage problem.

 

[northernglow]

It could be possible. The best way is to keep an eye on the mom because if she starts to show any symptoms of pain or other problems, it is likely that some of the kittens are going to get them too. You could take her to be x-rayed, but even that doesn't always show everything.