Today we took Vinnie to an ophthalmologist and she could confirm what both Finn-Ove and I was quite sure of - Vinnies eyes are already affected of PRA. About half of each eye has damages in the retina. I think www.pawpeds.com has a splendid short and easy to understand, description of PRA.

"Progressive retinal atrophy, or PRA as it is frequently termed, is a hereditary eye disorder. It is inherited as a simple autosomal recessive in most breeds. PRA has been recognized in humans, in most purebred dogs and some breeds of cats.

PRA is a disease of the retina, a tissue that is located inside the back of the eye. The retina contains specialized cells called photoreceptors. These absorb the light focused on them by the eye's lens, and convert the light into electrical nerve signals. The nerve signals are passed by the optic nerve to the brain where they are perceived as vision. In PRA in Abyssinian and Somali cats, the photoreceptors degenerate gradually.

Early in the disease, night vision deteriorates as the cat will face increased problems adjusting its vision to dim light. Later in the process, daytime vision also fails. As the retina degenerates it gets thinner and light will be strongly reflected (hyper reflection). At the same time the pupils become increasingly dilated, in a vain attempt to gather more light, causing a noticeable "shine" to their eyes. The lens may become cloudy, or opaque, resulting in a cataract. Total blindness occurs typically at around 4-5 years but could be delayed for several years.

Affected cats will adapt to their handicap as long as their environment remains constant, and they are not faced with situations requiring excellent vision.

Diagnosis of PRA is normally made by ophthalmoscopic examination. This requires dilatation of the pupil by application of eyedrops. PRA can be diagnosed by ophthalmoscopic changes: increased reflectivity (shininess) of the fundus (the inside of the back of the eye, overlain by the retina); reduction in the diameter and branching pattern of the retina's blood vessels; and shrinking of the optic nerve head (the nerve connecting the retina to the brain).

As there is now a DNA test for the rdAc mutation (causing the most common PRA), one also knows that a cat with double set of this recessive gene (the rdAc) will develop PRA, although there may be no signs at an ophthalmoscopic examination."

Vinnie is 1 year old in 2 days, and he is one of the cats who will develop total blindness at a young age.

Our dear Freja was diagnosed with a uterus infection a couple a weeks ago. We choosed to take a test of the pus, and started treatment with Synolux and Alizin. She was better, but she got in heat after a week on medicine. We discussed with more experienced breeders what to do, and they adviced us to let her mate since we wanted to have her as a breeding female. She mated Lion-O on the 9th of April, and we have hoped for her to be pregnant. Today the vet called us, the result of Freja`s test were ready. She has E-Coli and it is resistant to most of the medicine there is, ecxept Tetracyclines. And this type of medicine can not be used during pregnancies. There are sadly only a small chance that she will be able to fullfill the pregnancy, it is more likely that she will have an abortion. If the kittens are born, they might be having severe defects, and the E-Coli infection will probably kill them if they survive the pregnancy and delivery. But we can`t do anuthing about this situation, we just have to wait and to monitor Freja as much as possible. Her uterus infection is very likely to develop since she has not had a proper treatment. We do not know how to find strenght to cope with what`s ahead of us, we just hope that Freja will be ok in the end.

We have started the treatment against Tritrichomonas round 2, and all the cats are isolated besides Bart & Honeybump that are placed in the small catroom at the first floor. Freja is placed in the large catroom downstairs, but we will not treat her with Ronidazole because she migth be pregnant. We will treat her with Ronidazole later on, when everything has settled down a bit for her. In the meantime she will not be able to close physical contact with other cats, but that is the way it have to be now.

Freja today in her new enclosure

My son Ole Martin and a friend of my daughter Marie - Lars - has built enclosures in the largest catroom downstairs. The room is devided in 6 parts, and we have used mesh as walls. This way the cats are able to see eachother and to hear sounds from eachother, but there will be no opportunity to close contact and therefor it`s not likely that they could reinfect eachother. They will be isolated untill we got negative results of the tests for TF. This will be looooong weeks....

Our carpenters - Lars & Ole Martin

Thank you so much! This would not be possible without your help!

Ole Martin completed the enclosures last weekend, thank you again, Ole Martin!

The start of the building process

They used scruws to fasten the wood in the ceiling. On the floor and the walls they used double-sided tape since we did not want to make holes in the wooden floor and the brick walls.

And then the mesh.....

The cats moved in yesterday. They do not have as large enclosure as we want them to have, but they must cope for a while, this is the best we can do for now.

Lion-O

Prille is just hiding  

Puma, Lina & Freja

Puma

This time we got the Ronidazole as a powder, and we had to put this in capsules ourselves. Luckily this was very easy since Finn-Ove took a peek on Ebay, there are a lot of things and some of them quite useful! He bought a small scale, a capsule machin and capsules and suddenly my carpenter-son has changed profession - now to a pharmacist!

This way we saved thousands of Norwegian kroner!

The capsules are quite big, but Finn-Ove is VERY clever when it comes to give the cats their medicine. And now we hope for none sideeffects and a successfull treatment!

Our dear Freja is in heat again, and because of her PYO we have chosen to let her mate. She is now together with Lion-O, and if this is a success we will have some nice variants in the middle of June    I guess we will not be able to go to the cat-show at Finnsnes either. We have already lost two shows this year because of the TF, and now the third one maybe inpossible to go to. But to have a litter can be really nice if only they can stay healthy. We are crossing our fingers, can you do the same for us?

Freja, who will be 1 year in two days

Lion-O, 18 months

Freja is much better! She got both antibiotics and Alizin (hormones) to make sure there will not be any pus left in her uterus. She has got 2 shots of Alizin, a third one will be given on Wednesday. Hopefully this treatment will be a success and Freja will be a mother when the time is right. The only problem is that she should be mated on her next heat, and I do think that the treatment for Tritrichomonas Foetus is completed before she`s in heat again. So what do we do? If we choose to let her mate on her next heat, she should not be treated for TF because of the severe sideeffects the Ronidazole has. If she`s not mated, there is a large risk for her to get another infection and then she migth have to be neutered. It is a common understatement that the cats should not be given any P-pills after an uterus infection, this might also lead to a new infection. So what is the best thing to do? I do not know what impact it would have on the pregnancy and the small kittens if she`s not treated other than she and her kittens need to be isolated until they are TF negative. And that will take a while...... What would you do in a similar situation?

Our dear Freja (S*Qrowntwig Rumer) has not been as active as usual last couple of days. She has not participated in the feeding frenzies the cats have when they are given raw chicken-wings. All the cats love the raw food and Freja has been one of the most eager of them. The last days she has not eaten any wings, she has just overlooked the others. Her fur is not longer closelieing and it looks kind of greasy. And a short while ago we discovered why she`s not as she use to be. Finn-Ove picked her up to cuddle and to check if he could find out what was wrong, and as we feared he discovered pus in her vagina. So now we are going to the vets to get antibiotics for her. Hopefully this will be enough to cure the infection, we do not want to loose her as a breeding female.