A Michael Broad Blog
Inherited diseases are quite prevalent among the cat breeds and some are more predisposed than others (take the Peke-face Persian as an example). If you were to rank the cat breeds not by appearance and popularity but by inherited health, the American Shorthair would feature around the top. To be clear I am referring …
Here is an infographic which summarises the disease. You can click on the icon bottom-right to see the infographic full screen on phones (useful, I believe). Description: A kidney disease caused by the deposition of amyloid protein in the kidneys, leading to chronic kidney failure. Abyssinians are predisposed to this condition, which often manifests …
Although Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA) in Abyssinian cats is an inherited condition that leads to gradual blindness, this cat breed is not one plagued with a lot of inherited diseases. My research indicates that there are six which I will cover in future infographics. While there is no cure for PRA, responsible breeding and …
I recently wrote an article about a cat that has for ear flaps. They named him Audio. That article is about the misdescription of the condition because a cat with 4 ear flaps does not have four sets of ear anatomy. They just have 4 ear flaps; the bit that we can see. And …
NEWS AND OPINION: A cat born with “four ears” is simply a visual anomaly. They have an extra flap of skin – the ear flap which ‘captures’ sound – that gives the appearance of an additional ear on each side of their head. However, the underlying anatomy – the internal ear structure responsible for …
The salmiak cat coat is a variation on the tuxedo cat which is essentially a black-and-white (bicolor) cat but predominantly black with white on the chest area. In the salmiak version the black hairs are white at the tip which gives an interesting graded appearance to what would have been black fur – described …
The infographic that I have just prepared based on information from a recently published study provides the answer to the question in the title. Here it is: Glitter coat Another interesting aspect of this study is that the famous Bengal cat glitter coat is not due to the presence of the Asiatic leopard cat …
Flabby labradors suffer from a genetic mutation that affects 25% of the breed making them obsessed with eating and burning less energy in their metabolism. Why do the dog associations and clubs allow this to happen? It can be fixed by culling (removing from breeding/blood lines) those breeding dogs that carry this genetic mutation …
