Osteochondrodysplasia Case Study

Kim 1

Jaehee Kim

Research & Presentation 2A

Benard Kong

March 23 2018

Osteochondrodysplasia of Scottish Fold cat breed

One of the most crucial factors of purebred cats are the defining characteristics of each breed. To make sure the resulting cat has the specific features, selective breeding and preservation of traits are an essential procedure(Nicolae Selective Breeding). Moreover, with those breeding the cat maintains the characteristics and body features of its breed. For example, the fine ear fur of Maine Coon and yellow to green eyes of Russian Blue are all inherited through specific traits. Whether the trait with encoded characteristics is recessively inherited or dominantly, the breeding method differs. If the feature inherits through

The symptoms of SFOCD varies by each affected feline, but the common ones are the thick and inflexible tail, abnormally large and flat feet, and progressive joint distortion. All of these symptoms start with the distortion of the paw joints. The affected homozygous cats show metaphyses of the metatarsal and metacarpal bones distorted with a widened phase which results in decreased length and abnormal shape of the bones and shortening of distal limbs(R Malik et al. 85). The shortened limb lose connection with other joints and the abnormal shape of bones clashes with the nearby bones. Therefore, the cat cannot sustain its weight during a jump or run, and slowly it removes the ability to walk. The distorted cartilage than piles up at the terminal joints, which causes the thickened tail. The definite cause of the feline osteochondrodysplasia is the single autosomal dominant trait, designated as Fd, which determines the ear folding of the cat(Todd NB 2:64-65). In the study by Robinson R "Normal genetics, genetic disorders, developmental anomalies and breeding programmes," most of the cat with osteochondrodysplasia was homozygous for this trait, which means both of

The following 4 cases are the affected Scottish Fold cats with different ages and severity of a disease. All of the affected cats in these cases have born in a Fold to non-fold matings. The affected cats have not been diagnosed with any skeletal deformation or

Kim 4 obscurity during the first six months. The regular investigation at the vet with vaccination did not found any particular symptoms for SFOCD, and the physical changes for some cases were developed at least from 1 year after born. Case 1 is a 16-month-old male Fold presented for right forelimb lameness. He has not shown any skeletal obscurity during first 20 weeks which are average age line for diagnosis of SFOCD. The radiographs of affected paw showed changes in the limbs consistent with SFOCD, including malformed metacarpal and metatarsal bones and periarticular new bone formation. Inspection showed foreshortening of the distal limbs(R Malik et al., 86). Case 2 is a 6-year-old Fold showing the locomotor problem. This cat had a stiff, short and immobile tail and misshapen and splayed claws.