So sorry to hear of your heartbreaking loss xxxx


Neal...ive always used heat pads
When i owned the 1st ever stud i bought he would sometimes throw flat chested kittens & cleft pallete but only to a few of my girls

When i got another stud in & tried the girls who had produced flat chested to him ...i had healthy kittens

I read up lots of myths about what could cause flat chested kittens inc sleeping on warm radiators

But i believe it to be genetic

For me FCK is also genetic ! Kittens are born flat chested (even if it doesn't show) and heat pads won't do anything...

Macchiato wouldn't the breeder have changed stud or queens or anything at the same time ?

Edit : here's an interesting link :

http://pawpeds.com/pawacademy/health/flatchest/

I also once met a breeder who's also a vet nurse and when I talked to him about Chaos he told me that FCK happened in Bengals (because he thought he might be FCK when I described him at first).

We had our first FCK in our last litter. It was a litter of 7, and our vet told us that FCK can appear in large litters (amongst other causes). The stud had never thrown an FCK kitten before....but I am inclined to agree that it is genetic.

I found a website with remedies to try (vitamins etc...) and also to make sure to 'boost' the kitten with a milk supplement which I always have done anyway with kittens in large litters. Anyhow, the 'kitten' (Ernie) is now a healthy and mad 8 month- old Bengal, although he is taking a little longer to grow

I have to say though, we homed the little guy free of charge to a lovely couple who had already homed a Bengal from us. I can't understand how breeders can charge money for a kitten with an obvious health issue, especially when you can't guarantee whether the poor kitten will survive or it will not require further medical care. And that's without the problems of trying to insure the kitten

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Best Wishes,
Maddy

From what's been described here and Anne's helpful link, I realise that Daisy has FCK. She was given to me free by the breeder who was going to stop breeding from her mother. It was just described as a "square" chest but she has the characteristic dip around the shoulder blades that you can see in the photo on the link. She's made it to 7 months, has survived being spayed and has the same energy levels as her two sisters so I guess I'm lucky she's only got a mild version.

Apparently it's not very clear, it would be polygenic so it's difficult to trace and to say that a cat is very much likely to throw off fc kittens or not...

Ginnym I hope Daisy will be ok but if she made it up to now it should be ok . At least your breeder hasn't charged you anything for her even though she didn't explain what that meant !

Yes, I think Daisy will be OK. The breeder did say she'd had her checked by a vet who'd said she was fine. I also had her checked when I first got her and my vet couldn't detect any heart or lung problems so I think she's one of the lucky kittens who won't suffer as a result of her flat chest. She's certainly got boundless energy!!

Ginny