Health:
Every breed is to some extent affected by hereditary diseases. The Maine Coon breed is no exception, all though it is a healthy breed in general.
Th e swedish club "Maine Coon-katten" has come up with a health programme that recommends testing of two hereditary deseases , HD(canine hip dysplasia) and HCM(hypertrophic cardiomyopathy ), before a cat is brought into a breeding programme. The purpose is of course to reduce the occurence of these deseases in the future.
HD(canine hip dysplasia)
In a dysplastic hip the head of the femur and the socket do not fit like they should. The result i s a painful and damaging friction.This can cause severe pain to the cat all thoug cats are good at hiding it.
The hip dysplasia x-ray can give these result:
Normal - no sign of HD
Borderline - no diagnosis, but there is an abnormality
1 - lightly affected
2 - medium affected
3 - severly affected
The recommodation today is to still include cats with borderline and 1, but then the partner should be normal on both hips.
To learn more, please click here
HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy)
This desease can cause heartfailure, embolism and breathing problems caused by fluid surrounding the lungs. It develops slowly and is rarely seen before 6 months of age. It can take several years before a cat gets the diagnosis. The recommendations by the swedish health programme is to test the cat frequently from the age of 12 months. It can be discovered by ultrasound and is shownby a thickening of the heartmuscle. Some times there is no sign of illness before the cat suddenly dies. There`s no cure for the desease . A cat with a HCM-diagnosis is not to be used for breeding.
To learn more, please click here
HCM DNA-test
There is a spesific genetic mutation that can be discovered by performing a DNA-test. We also do this test on our breeding cats.
To learn more, please click here
Besides testing our cats we work to broaden the gene pool of the Maine Coon. To learn more, please click here
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