Can cats have down syndrome?

[luvschrist]

Silly question maybe, but I was curious. We have a litter of 3 week old kittens, and one has big, round eyes like a child with down syndrome, and I was just wondering if cats can have it too. I don't even know if cats have the same number of chromosomes as people. :shrug

[Aerynne]

No idea, but I've seen cats like that, too. Seems to be genetic. There was this family that lived next door to my grandmother and had tons and tons of cats (40 + cats I am not kidding) and some of them looked like that.

[domesticzookeeper]

Cats can't have Down's Syndrome, but they can have other chromosomal and genetic mutations that would produce traits like large eyes, etc. It be pretty unlikely that there would be any other problems that go along with that, as with Down's Syndrome...

We had a litter of kittens, and the tortie girl had eyes like you describe. Turned out to be a perfectly normal cat with gorgeous eyes :)

[Amber]

My cat has big round eyes that people always comment on...but he is "normal" (if you can consider cats normal ;) )

Cats do have a different number of chromosomes than people do. I haven't heard of anything similar to Down's in cats.

[luvschrist]

Thanks for sharing your wisdom! The parents are siblings, so I was just wondering about this litter! These babies bring my total numbers of kitties up to 14 :eek They are outside pets though!

[Sanveann]

My friend fostered (and adopted) a kitten who we would swear has Down Syndrome. He has a round head and round eyes, and he is very loving but, well, just not all there. For example, when he was a baby, one time he got shut in a drawer by accident. She realized a day later that she hadn't seen him for a little while, and started looking for him. He hadn't made a peep the whole time!

Are you able to get some of the kitties spayed/neutered?