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Hip Displasia:

As our breeding cats started to retire with new cats being added, we realized that we needed to start retesting.  We do feel that testing is important and we began re-screening our cats again in the mid-1990's and now screen EVERY breeding cat we have for HD. Prior to 2001, only one cat in our breeding program failed their hip screen. This particular female was immediately spayed, unbred. All of our other cats, since we have begun back in 1991 -- and of the kittens we have sold who have been tested, most have passed their hip exams.  Three however, have shown up to have hip displasia and they all required surgery to correct their condition.  All three had completely different and tested parents (one neuter from Renegade and Bluegrass (Tommy), one spay from Sundance and Mardi Gras (Carnivale)and one neuter from Bobbie Sox and Navarro (Flash)).  All three cats live in wonderful homes with very caring owners.  Flash and Carnie have made a complete recovery and enjoy normal mobility.

It is possible for a cat to have severe HD yet be out of parents with Good or Excellent hip ratings. It is also possible to have ca ts with good ratings from parents who are Fair and Borderline. HD is a curious polygenetic situation. Screening helps us prevent cats with bad hips from being bred and should help reduce the chance of any kittens born with hip displasia.  Our goal is to produce zero cats who end up symptomatic of this condition.  There is another method of testing - the Penn Hip system but this is not /easily/ available where we live.  Either system is a proven way to check for HD.

While approximately six of our cats were x-rayed after the age of 24 months and therefore are certified by the OFA, most of our cats were x-rayed just once, usually around 12-18 months of age and therefore they were not old enough to be certified. Our personal experience is that if a cat passed their 12-18 month exam with "good" results (either OFA prelim or rated by our vet), then we do not usually redo that cat's hip screen once the cat is 24 months of age. We have found that our own vets are /usually/ as accurate as OFA.  Certification can only happen if the cats are over 24 months of age.

For more informations, please visit the Feline Hip Displasia Awareness site, created by the very talented Kathy Joiner.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy:

We were especially interested in participating because we'd recently received a call from one of our pet buyers who informed us that his 11 month old Maine Coon had been diagnosed with HCM. Sneakers, a blue silver tabby neuter had just exhibited signs of congestive heart failure. He'd been neutered at Adobe Animal Hospital, one of our region's best vet hospitals, just one month prior and no heart murmer had been detected. Sneakers' parents are QGC Cooncreole Beausoleil and Saintclouds Dimond Jubilee of Coonyham. When we learned of Sneakers condition, both of his parents had already been altered. We'd even placed Jubile e in a new home. We took both of these cats, both over 4 years of age to see Dr. Kittleson. We even managed to "borrow" some of Sneakers' littermates in order to take them to UCD for the day. Neither of Sneaker' parents nor any of his littermates showed signs of HCM at that time nor have they developed HCM to date. We placed Beausoleil with my brother, David. Beau is still doing very well and he is over 10 years of age.   Jubilee recently passed away at the age of 11. She suffered from diabetes and developed Cushings Disease.

We have subsequently returned for rechecks on some of older cats or  new exams on younger cats. In the Summer of 1998, we decided to update  our cats' heart information and decided to re-ultrasound all of our breeding  cats who were over 1.5 years of age. It took several trips and several  months to complete the process. All of our breeding cats passed their ultrasounds  and exams with Dr. Kittleson with one notable exception. Our beautiful Mojave  had developed a loud dynamic murmer and on ultrasound, showed very enlarged papillary muscles and a very prominant papillary cord. The latter symptom was the clincher in his diagnosis, and with everything combined - Dr. Kittleson said Mojave had HCM - definitive HCM. His diseas e was not severe at diagnosis and he still acts like a goofy, active kitten. His murmer was not detected when he was neutered, a few months prior to his ultrasound but we cannot be 100% certain that the vet who neutered him even checked. We've not been back to this vet since then as we were not happy with their services.

Mojave's mother, Santana, has had multiple ultrasounds for HCM.  Her most recent echocardiogram was in December 2000 at 8.5 years of age.  We are happy to report that Santana does not have HCM and while she shows a few changes from her last exams, these changes may well be attributable to her hyperthyroidism (per Dr. Kittleson and Dr. Pion), for which she received a treatment of radioactive isotopes at an animal cancer facility in Pacifica in early 2000.  She suffered from hyperthyroidism for at least six months before she could be treated.  We feel this came on during her last pregnancy and we could not treat her until her kittens were weaned and she was stabilized with Tapenol.  Her thyroid levels are now normal and she was spayed once it could be done safely.  Dr. Kittleson explained that hyperthyroidism can actually cause HCM in some cats and it can also affect the heart physically in ways that can show up on ultrasound.  These signs may persist after the hyperthyroidism is treated, theref ore any changes in her heart may not be due to HCM but to her hyperthyroidism.  It is frustrating but we have yet another reason to continue our vigilance with Santana and to continue to test and monitor her.  She is still the mother of a son with confirmed HCM.

Her son, Navarro (Mojave's half brother) who was sired by MtKittery Carbonero of Emlu also has been screened four times by Dr. Kittleson. He was most recently retested in July 2000 at seven years of age.  He passed away in 2005 from complications associated with severe gall-bladder disease.

The degree of ignorance about this disease is as frightening as the disease itself.  HCM is not a congenital disease, per se, it is inheirited.  Please visit Jody Chinitz' great site for more precise definitions.  Dr. Kittleson marks all cats with pronounced or enlarged papillary muscles as having "probable HCM" however, this is not confirmed HCM and as a friend of ours experienced, this can mean that the cat could test clear on a subsequent echocardiogram. Cats can have elongated or slightly prominant or slightly enlarged papillary muscles and not receive this summary of "probable HCM".  Their test results are more equivocal.  Two of our own cats had "slightly prominant papillary muscles" a few years ago (one was quite young, under 2 years of age).  Dr. Kittleson advised us not to alter the cats but to retest in one year which we did - both cat passed their screens with flying colors and one was "textbook perfect" on the second echo, to quote Dr. Kittleson.  Subsequent ultrasounds show these cats still with perfectly normal hearts at the times of their last screens.  Another breeder reports that one of her females showed enlarged papillary muscles at one year.  The cat was spayed, but one year, her echocardiogram showed a normal heart.

Hearts are dynamic organs, subject to change and stress.  Change can happen very quickly, both for the better and for the worse.

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy is a puzzling, frightening and frustrating disease.  Education and rigorous, annual testing are the only things we can do at this time to ensure that our cats and their kittens are as healthy and long lived as possible.

Eliminating HCM from our Maine Coons is of utmost importance. We are so lucky to have Dr. Kittleson working with Maine Coon breeders. If anyone would like to help fund Dr. Kittleson's work, one way to do this is with a check payable to U.C. Regents, marked in the notes/memo line "CCAH-Dr.Kittleson" and sent to:

Center for Companion Animal Health
C/O VM-Development Office
School of Veterinary Medicine
U.C. Davis
Davis, CA 9561 6

Sometimes sad and tragic events happen to wonderful cats. We cannot prevent many of these things from happening, all we can do is be supportive of those affected, pursue the education and  testing that exists to prevent some situations from re-occuring and help  fund studies to try to eliminate these diseases and conditions. Tests are not fool-proof.  Cats that are negative for HCM can still produce affected offspring before they themselves are symptomatic.  Variable expressivity means that some cats positive for HCM may be "diagnosable" at 1 year while others test normal or nearl y normal past 6-8 years of age and perhaps YEARS after they have been retired from breeding.  It's frustrating but we can all only do our best.  People need  to stop attacking the victims or we are never going to eliminate these problems. We hope that our openness will help encourage other breeders;  to move past the fear of talking about "unmentionable" problems or diseases  and to let others know that they are not alone, they are not at fault and there is support, understanding and empathy out there for what they too are dealing with.  We can't explain everything that happens though we wish we could.  Rumor-monguering helps no one.  Let's all hope for a definitive blood test... soon!  That would be ideal.  For the love of the Maine Coon....

Last modified: December 6, 2005