[All] ♡ Medical advice | Cat health & illnesses

[Wingnettle]

Originally Posted by Courage

im thinking of giving my main oc a disability, don't know what disability to give her tho. @Wingnettle

Do you have some plot you want to follow? What limits should this disability put on the cat?

[Courage]

id like her to get the disability through a non combat related accident. I'd like her to have to train hard to cope with having the disability. @Wingnettle

[Wingnettle]

Originally Posted by Courage

id like her to get the disability through a non combat related accident. I'd like her to have to train hard to cope with having the disability. @Wingnettle

What clan is this cat currently in? Do you want her to maintain the potential to be a good warrior? (For example Brightheart did it, whereas Cinderpelt didn't)

[Courage]

i want her to remain the potential to be a good warrior, shes in Thunderclan. @Wingnettle

[Wingnettle]

Originally Posted by Courage

i want her to remain the potential to be a good warrior, shes in Thunderclan. @Wingnettle

Some options that I can think of:
-She goes hunting in Snakerocks and gets attacked by an adder. Maybe she loses sight from one eye?
-She climbs an old tree until some bark/some branch breaks and she falls. She might get an injury to a leg/paw, which then heals but leaves that body part crooked.
-Maybe she meets some young and stupid twolegs who use firecrackers and she loses hearing from an ear?
-This might be too complicated: if she falls / has a car accident, she might get neurological damage but that could impact many many things. For example, she might lose the use of both legs

[Courage]

ty! i think i might go with loss of sight in one eye @Wingnettle

[wolfie]

@Wingnettle
hello !! question, question. i have a character named asterdance who is deaf. originally my reasoning was it had been prominent since birth (nerve deafness was/is the type). their father was a kittypet who had white fur, blue eyes and was deaf. their mother was also a maine coon mix which i wanna say that breed has a higher chance in terms of genetic deafness?? so, it made sense in my little head. another thing is that asterdance can speak orally + lipread along with a few basic gestures. while their dad wasn't around when they were born, i figured their mother would have knowledge and is the person who taught them !!

expect ghostie also realized that it's not.. impossible but, it's super difficult ?? in terms of communication and like, dunno. so i was wondering if you have any other possible causes that may make it a little bit sense ? was thinking either it was sudden or development but been roleplaying them since they were baby (like four moons or so) with them being completely deaf so don't know if it could develop that pass. they were an outsider so wouldn't have any access to herbs or anything. so sickness or somethin' is pretty possible.

small note : their mother passed away when they were four moons or around that. their was a monster coming and aster didn't feel the vibrations soon enough so she saved 'em. since this wasn't roleplayed out i figured i could actually mess around with that ? perhaps at that point they weren't deaf, but were merely distracted and recklessly ran into a road. they froze when a monster was coming so that's why their mom had to save them. would it be possible for the loud noises at such a young age to have ruptured their eardrum or something similar? + aster was injured during it, they had been slammed against the ground extremely hard. either a rock or something injured their shoulder. perhaps the sudden change of pressure ?? then i think that would. only be one ear.

i don't know those are my thoughts pfpff ;;

,, also one small question just because i am completely unsure. i have wormbite, whoo is blindd. it's developmental, he was born prematurely was very sick as a kit and very pure nutrition. along with the fact his family has a history of it. he's 36 moons right now, do you know how far it would have progressed at this point? with it being untreated completely?

[Wingnettle]

Originally Posted by x ghostie

@Wingnettle
hello !! question, question. i have a character named asterdance who is deaf. originally my reasoning was it had been prominent since birth (nerve deafness was/is the type). their father was a kittypet who had white fur, blue eyes and was deaf. their mother was also a maine coon mix which i wanna say that breed has a higher chance in terms of genetic deafness?? so, it made sense in my little head. another thing is that asterdance can speak orally + lipread along with a few basic gestures. while their dad wasn't around when they were born, i figured their mother would have knowledge and is the person who taught them !!

expect ghostie also realized that it's not.. impossible but, it's super difficult ?? in terms of communication and like, dunno. so i was wondering if you have any other possible causes that may make it a little bit sense ? was thinking either it was sudden or development but been roleplaying them since they were baby (like four moons or so) with them being completely deaf so don't know if it could develop that pass. they were an outsider so wouldn't have any access to herbs or anything. so sickness or somethin' is pretty possible.

small note : their mother passed away when they were four moons or around that. their was a monster coming and aster didn't feel the vibrations soon enough so she saved 'em. since this wasn't roleplayed out i figured i could actually mess around with that ? perhaps at that point they weren't deaf, but were merely distracted and recklessly ran into a road. they froze when a monster was coming so that's why their mom had to save them. would it be possible for the loud noises at such a young age to have ruptured their eardrum or something similar? + aster was injured during it, they had been slammed against the ground extremely hard. either a rock or something injured their shoulder. perhaps the sudden change of pressure ?? then i think that would. only be one ear.

i don't know those are my thoughts pfpff ;;

,, also one small question just because i am completely unsure. i have wormbite, whoo is blindd. it's developmental, he was born prematurely was very sick as a kit and very pure nutrition. along with the fact his family has a history of it. he's 36 moons right now, do you know how far it would have progressed at this point? with it being untreated completely?

Hello! I know Asterdance, he was taken back from Starclan and is now in Thunderclan again!

So... there is one gene that is associated both with white coat and deafness, and that's a dominant one. You don't necessarily need to choose a Maine Coon among the parents if you want to raide the chances, as only white maine coons are at risk and so are many other breeds. This deafness can be unilateral or bilateral, meaning it can even impact one ear only. It's a congenital disease, so the hearing organs don't develop but rather degenerate during the first months of life - meaning the cat hasn't probably ever heard anything in their life. That gene is also associated with blue eyes, so a cat with two blue eyes is more likely to have a congenital deafness but that doesn't mean thar other eyes' color can't coexist with it.
Since the effect of genes that are inherited is summed, the descendants of two white cats with blue eyes - deafs or not - are at higher risk of being deaf since birth.

Second thing: this looks more complicated but since characters can speak, I guess it can work somehow. However keep in mind that the mother should have had the opportunity to learn enough on her own and pass on to Asterdance the more she can. You should take your time to develop this storyline enough, and it should be fine!
Also, you want not to exaggerate in this lip reading as if the cat has secret powers and can read anything. You should keep realistic and limit this ability to a few relevantl works, such as "prey", "hunting", "patrols"... you know, the basic indications that a warrior needs to communicate. For less important stuff such as grooming, playing, saying hi.. use your body language. Your ears, paws, tails, mouth, back... your clanmates will have the time to learn your way or communication.


If you want to take the "acquired deafness" path, here's what you need to know: it may be caused by infections, trauma, toxins or degenerations of the ear. It can result also from inflammation, damage of the small bones within the ears or loss of nerve cells (causes by trauma, infections, loud noises, tumors, drugs toxic to the ear and other diseases that affect the myelin of neurons). So no, congenital deafness doesn't regard the damage of neuronal cells in the ear as you first said. That type of deafness is due to a degeneration of the whole system (the cochlea and the organ of Corti).
Can the noises of a car accident cause complete deafness in a kit? I don't think so, but it may surely cause some problems if the car is VERY noisy (deafness is improbable with noises under 70 decibel, and cars are usually below that range. To give you an idea, fireworks would be 140 decibels for example). With a car accident it would be more likely to get deafness from a trauma, maybe to the small bones of the ear (even just one).

Hope I was useful

Main sources: https://www.msdvetmanual.com/cat-own...afness-in-cats
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cong...afness_in_cats
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/noi...d-hearing-loss

[wolfie]

@Wingnettle
yep !! they got tired of them and decided, mm, fine if you stop crying you can go back. also, that makes sense !! i wasn't sure if maine coons in general were prone or if it was just white maine coons. thank you for the suggestions !! also definitely, been trying to learn how to read lips actually and uh ... there's so many factors. (man, trying to think about how cats would go about it gives me grey hairs lmao. ) really hoping to make asterdance a more accurate representation so thank you!!!

i'm in a bit of a wonky space since asterdance has been roleplayed since they were four/five-ish moons. a lot of stuff already happened in roleplay that ,,.. can't be exactly changed. though !! i can change their backstory a bit as long as the major event doesn't change.

i'm heavily leaning onto it having been acquired! feel like it would make more sense at least in terms of verbal speech & lipreading. (just because of known sound association with lip movements i wanna say ? ;w; maybee ) so, just, a few more questions i'm sorry aaa. really want to make sure i'm representing everything properly and having it be accurate !!

would you say it would be realistic for asterdance to have damage of the small bones because of the car accident ? if not, do you perhaps have any ideas on any other sort of trauma that could have happened ? they are.. a very reckless character and honestly, if their mother told them no i imagine they would try and do it on out of spite when they were younger.

i'm unsure if that would cause hearing loss in both ears?? or, could,, could they have damaged bones in both ears? (i'm sorry if you already answered this because i'm not sure if you meant one bone or one ear could cause deafness ;; )

if not, i'm thinking either inflammation/infection? depends on whether aster could have survived without proper treatment. i don't think ear mites would be an option because aster has two siblings which means they would probably have been infected also.

okay thank you for your time you wonderful human being

[puppeteer]

i have a kit character in ShadowClan (Sagekit) who is about to become an apprentice, and i was wondering if theres any genetic diseases in domestic shorthairs or ragdolls that would cause complete blindness suddenly? i was hoping for him to become an apprentice then his vision going away not long after