DK Loddenhøj`s Fighter

05.21.06 02.09.08, thanx to Wieke for the pictures from February 9th:-) 08.11.09 12.31.09   HCM: Equivocal on 10.03.04 & 10.02.05 HCM: Normal on 10.05.06, 10.12.06 & 03.24.09 PKD, HD & PL: Normal on 10.03.04 Weight on 04.10.10 5,93 kg COI (coefficient of inbreeding): 4,46% Pan's Polaris COI: 9,38%

The original agreement between me and Jan, Fighters breeder, was that since I really wanted a kitten from this combination, because of the lines that are behind his mother, I would get one kitten as the studfee, or, if no breeder/show quality kitten was born, I would get money instead. But luckyly 4 healthy kittens were born, after a rather dramatic "birth", 1 girl and 3 boys. The story about Fighters start in life can be read here!

My decision to keep Fighter really has nothing to do with the original agreement, because after his some what turbulent start here in life, I simply couldn´t part with him! And I couldn´t care less about wether or not he will have any chance of ever becoming good enough to be a show or breeding cat, because he is MY cat and that is what he will always be, just like the other cats I own :-)

I will most proberbly take him to at least one show, when I feel that he is ready to take on that challenge, but right now it is more important to keep him on the good track that he is on and let him develop slowly and confident, like he already does, and today, being 7 weeks and 5 days old, he weighs 800 grams and that is not bad at all:-)

Fighter is still gaining weight. At the age of 9 weeks and 2 days old the scale is showing 1025 gram.

Fighter is still having progress, fortunately, and he has also been showed a couple of times. His showing has been very succesful, because at shows there are HUMANS present, humans that will cuddle and talk to him, ALL the time, and when that is the case, then Fighter is in his right element:-)

Unfortunately Fighter didn't end up being as large as I would have liked him to be, so I desided to not use him in my breedingprogram and he was neutered. Since I made that decision, Fighter has been diagnosed with Borderline HCM, so I'm very glad that he never made any kittens. HCM is an inheriated heart disease all cat breeds can be affected of. We will have to keep a close eye on Fighters heart for the rest of his life, so he will be scaned yearly by a specialist.

At the last HCM scanning in October 2005 the vet found that Fighters health has become worse. His diagnosis is still set as "only" being equivocal, but the fact is that he now has a murmur, which he didn't have at the examination in 2004 and he's also starting to show signs of developing SAM.

Since the begining of November we have been forced to keep Figther inside, because he's begining to build up water/fluid in his lungs:-( He's on meds to try to get the water out of his system but apart from that, there's very little we can do for him. We have however deside that he is not permitted to be outside in the runs during the day, because his increasingly bad health can't be subjected to the moist weather we have in Denmark at the moment. We have chosen this to prevent Figther from getting more sick, but since we can't explain this to Figther, he sits either at the door or by the window everyday asking to be let out. We're hoping that he'll get better soon and that we'll be able to live with him for many years to come.

After a very loooong winter we have finally gotten some half decent weather and the water that had build up in Fighters lungs, has now disappeared. That means that Figther again is allowed to be outside in the run something he enjoys very much! We will of course keep a close eye on how his health develops and if he gets water in his lungs again, he won't be allowed out in the run for that periode of time.

10.12.06

As part of the HCM project at KVL, some of our cats was asked to come and give bloodsamples and also be scaned for HCM. Figther was one of the cats we entered the project. When he'll be scaned again is not sure, because we don't know yet if he'll be followed through the project at KVL or he'll be scaned under the "normal" procedures we follow. More info will be added as we get it. The reason why there's 2 results for Figther, is because Jørgen Kock, the primary source behind the project, wanted to rescan some of the cats, to see if their results had changed, even though only a week had passed since the first scanning.