Ragdoll Cat Forums

Since you've been of such great help to me as a novice breeder, I am posting another issue here.
We had our first litter from a queen who turned out to have a nearly constant tearful right eye. At the time, being new to breeding, we didn't think too much of it as she was fit and healthy otherwise and didn't seem to suffer at all. The eye is just wet for a certain period and dries up again, only to start again.
On top of that she also turned out to have bloodtype B. We knew this as we had her tested beforehand but another established breeder told me it was no problem to breed from a B queen, as long as you handfeed the first day or 2.
From her first litter we lost the first 3 kittens probably to FNS. This despite the fact we handfed straight from birth. The fourth kitten developed a chest infection and sadly died as well. On top of this drama number 5 developed catflu , one of them really badly but with a lot of effort we managed to save her. Number 6 was and is a very healthy and strong fellow.

In the meantime I'd like to think I am a little wiser and think our queen's runny eye might be a chronic side-effect she carries from an earlier cat-flu she might have had. When I asked her breeder she admitteds that only her mother had catflu when she had a litter (of which our queen was a kitten) but to my mind this means that her kittens must have had this too. The kitten we had from her and suffered badly from catflu seems to have exactly the same chronic wet eye that seems to come and go.
2 Weeks ago we put our Queen on a homeopathic medicine called Lysine and are hoping she will get better.
In the meantime we're not sure if we should continue breeding with her (this time with a bloodtype B King). Will the fact that she probably had catflu and has the eye as a side effect affect all her litters. Are there breeders out there who had this experience? It certainly wasn't a great start for us but we would like to be better prepared next time.
Any advice in this is welcome!

Hello Semiramide,

We are new to the breeding game and only learning ourselves, so we cant give you sound advice on something like this just yet, but we can definitely discuss the topic!

It seems possible that your Queen's condition makes her unsuitable for breeding at the moment. If she has had cat flu in the past and has recurrent symptoms, there is a chance it will effect her litters in some way, which from what you have described has already happened. Your Queen will be fine as if she is old enough to breed, she would have developed antibodies against the sickness, however her kittens have very weak to no immunity when they are first born and this is when it is most fatal.

Our advice to you is to treat your Queen as you are doing, monitor how the symptoms are going and seek advice on whether there is a chance of this happening in the next litter, even if all symptoms are gone. A vet or a well established breeder who has previously dealt with this problem (which you may find in this forum!) would be the way to go.

If you cannot get a definitive answer, or if you are told this could happen again, you should reconsider breeding from her.

I am not sure what your questions are. (Personally, I do not think I would breed with a type B queen, but some breeders do. For me, it is just a complication that can and should be avoided.)

As for rhino, it is very common. URIs are common in cats and it is guestimated that about 40% of those are rhino. Rhino can be carried, including by a queen, and that can cause a newborn to break with it, which is a very dangerous time to have to fight it off. However, the kittens will be getting the initial immunity from the mother's antibodies. I believe some breeders do nasal immunizations on kittens too young to get shots to help cover the period between immunity in the milk and the first shot. You have to decide if the value of the queen justifies the risks and trouble. (Lysine is not a homeopathic remedy. it is, like feline interferon, given in the hope of interference with viral replication.)

I am not a vet but a small family cattery but it sounds like the Queen has feline herpes which is a chronic condition and quite possible to pass on to the kittens. Some are carriers with no symptons but your Queen has obviously symptons. There may be periods of time where it is better but it never is out of her system. I would not use her as a Queen and would disclose her condition to potential pet buyers.

Unless the Queen was a show star and RW SGC I would not breed with a blood type different from my Stud due to the complexity involved.

Good luck

Regarding different blood type. You would need to hand feed for at least 3 days minimum. The problem is in the colostrum and unless the kittens feed, the colostrum will still be in her nipples. You can try hand milking mum to get rid of the colostrum quicker and most of the immunity is in the colostrum so the kittens will loose out on immunity from the mum. So personally I would not breed a B group queen to anything but a B group stud. With the BSH if you get the kittens past the 6/8 week age, they are still at risk of loosing the tip of their tails so something else for you to watch out for.

The fact some of the kittens developed chest infections/cat flu symptoms shows mum is a carrier and I wouldn't breed from her again until the virus can be identified and treated if possible.

The antibodies remain in the milk. The major change is not "first milk," but the GI tract development of the kittens. Breeding with B queens is not uncommon in Europe. Those breeders can provide advice on how to handle the issue, which may vary from early litters to later ones, if you decide to breed B queens.

As for notifying buyers of an infection, I am not sure that makes any sense for symptom free kittens. They were exposed to rhino assuming an accurate diagnosis. But that is little different from any other kitten. A totally symptom free cattery can easily have rhino present - and kittens can be exposed at the vet or based on a visitor carrying it in also. So, I am not sure what a pet buyer can do with the information other than look for treatable symptoms, which would be true in all cases anyway.

Personally, with so many things going against her I would retire the queen from your breeding programme. I know it's hard but I would feel that the risks of the kittens being ill or dying too great a risk to take for me. The need to hand-rear the kittens because of the blood type takes all of the joy out of breeding, it shouldn't be a hard slog and from my limited experience it can be a most enjoyable time. Your epxerience sounds too sad, not the kind of thing you would want to repeat, especially with the loss of so many kittens. I feel so sorry for you and hope that you will be able to go on and experience the brighter side of breeding before too long.