Expert: Jessica - 5/2/2011

Question
Hello Jessica.  I'm hoping you can help me a little bit.  I find myself with 2 new kittens on my hands.  They are only 3 or 4 weeks old.  My friend's family interbred their cats and these poor kittens had the effects of this.  One only has 3 legs and the other seems to have a kink his neck so his head is always tilted to the side.  I only took the kittens because my friend's father was going to "get rid" of the poor things.  They seem to be able to eat soft cat food but I'm not sure what else I need to do.  Can you help me?

Answer
Hi Jess,

Poor little ones! Unfortunately, the only thing to really do is see if the babies can survive to adolescence one their own. If they're able to eat, walk and use the litter box without problems, chances are good they can live a normal life. If they AREN'T able to do these things, any help we give them is, sadly, just prolonging the inevitable. Missing legs rarely cause physical problems for cats, and as long as there is nothing neurologically wrong with the other kitty, she should probably compensate for a head tilt just fine. I recommend that you treat the kittens just as any others - they should learn to climb on their own through exercise encouragement and play, etc. At this young age, keep them away from heights taller than a foot or so, and provide litter boxes with shallow edges, just as for all youngsters.

The biggest challenge for them will probably be finding loving and appropriate homes. "Imperfect" cats are slower to win the hearts of people than adorable bundles of fur, so if you aren't planning to keep the little ones, beware that it can take lots of time and patience to find just the right families.

Good luck!

Jessica