Birman Cat

Health

When writing about health issues of any cat breed, I simply present what I see and read. I leave it to others to decide to act or not on the information presented by filtering out the useful. But I present all that I discover or know using sound sources.

My research indicates no outstanding health related issues with this breed. Except there may be an issue with Kidney and liver function.  Also in a book by Ross D. Clark DIM called Medical, Genetic & Behavioral Aspects of Purebred Cats (published 1992) the author states that some genetic lines have a tendency to have weak legs or nasal obstructions, leading to breathing by the mouth. He says that a disease called epibulbar dermoids was reported in “a” line (i.e. one line) of UK Birmans (remember this is pre-1992). A condition fairly well known in the cat world hip dysplasia (new window) is occasionally seen in the Birman cat.

A survey was very wisely and sensibly carried out in the UK by Dr. Danièlle Gunn-Moore, BSc, BVM&S, PhD, MACVSc, MRCVS and Dr Rebecca Richards, MA, VetMB, PhD, CertSAM, MRCVS. It is not clear when the research was carried out. I don’t know what steps people have taken to manage this or if people simply disagree.

It was a large and highly scientific analysis. In summary the findings where are follows:

• many Birmans may suffer from varying degrees of renal dysfunction
• this disorder may progress (get worse) over time
• this conclusion has been drawn from evidence of higher than usual levels of kidney enzymes (creatinine levels)
• in the test it was found that 80% of Birmans (aged 6 months or less) had creatinine levels above average. Elevated creatinine levels were also found in the adult Birman cat but less frequently (30% above normal).
• high creatinine levels remained high
• in a survey of deaths at the time of the survey, out of 92 cats, 19 died of kidney failure (21%) and of these 8 were under 10 years of age.
• the cause of this disorder may be inherited
• the Birman cats included in the survey had a COI (Coefficient of Inbreeding) of between 40 to 60% and rising over the 30 years prior to the survey/analysis. This is high I understand but not unusually so for purebred cats (so the doctors say). This data led the doctors to conclude that the high incidence of renal failure may be due to inbreeding
• there is also the possibility that this cat breed may have inherited a liver shunt. A “shunt” is an abnormal natural channel (src: http://www.yourdictionary.com/shunt).

The term COI is commonly used by cat breeders. Clearly breeders must find a balance between breeding closely to enhance the cat’s “type” – appearance (make the cat as “typey” as possible) and health (breeding more widely to avoid a higher incidence of defects due to “defective” genes that are recessive).

A COI of more than 25% is considered high and is equivalent to a parent to child or brother to sister mating. This would indicate to me that the Birman COI mentioned above is too high. It is recommended to keep the COI below 20% (src: http://web.archive.org/web/20150506035234/http://www.bijoupoodles.com:80/COI.html – a dog breeding site but I am sure the same principles apply)

There is often a difference in regards to cat breed health between the USA and UK. This research should not in my opinion be taken as representative of the USA Birman cat. This research is bravely (and in an enlightened way) presented on a British breeders website. I would like to commend them because it can only serve in the long term to help the breed. You can see the full text here: http://web.archive.org/web/20090414184101/http://www.chosenhill-birmans.co.uk:80/veterinary.htm – link broken at 29th August 2011. This link will also take you to the cattery website. The cattery owners are Alwyn & Ted Hill.