Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with kitten flat chest syndrome?

[MarkB]

A relative contacted me to ask if I knew anything about it, but I had never heard of it. The kitten is 2 weeks old. She took it to the PDSA yesterday. They said there is nothing they can do. They have shown her how to bottle-feed, which apparently can help, although they have told her that if he deteriorates, she needs to bring him back and they will PTS

[booktigger]

Its not something I've heard for years, but I know it often doesn't have a positive outcome, fingers crossed for him

[Ruth B]

I have heard of it as one of the kittens on one of the kitten cams i follow had it several years ago, and I will add that he is doing fine. (If you want to try and find out about him google 'grant mythbusters kitten foster dad john or Tory and Grant the mythbusters kitten facebook page), Grant was the kitten who had the condition. It's a while ago now but I seem to remember him having some sort of coat as he grew up to help shape the chest and seeing information that there is surgery that can fit a metal frame to the front of the kitten in bad cases to help pull the chest into shape. I got that feeling that that was fairly invasive and only used as a last resort in really bad cases.

If my memory serves me correctly the condition means that the ribs are flat rather than arched across the chest and in very bad cases can actually curve inwards. This means that there isn't enough room for the lungs to fill properly which means the kitten can be breathless and have problems suckleing meaning it needs additional feeds if its siblings keep bullying it away from the milk bar.

I think a lot just grow out of it with little intervention and hopefully yours will to. As I said it has been a while since I saw the kitten with it and hopefully someone here can give more information.

[Meandmymunki]

Hi Mark, I've had 2 in the rescue over the years, sadly the first one didn't make it but her chest wasn't just flat is actually caved inwards and she got repeat chest infections and we lost her at 10 weeks, the other one however was a litter of 7 and at about 2 weeks she started to drop weight and that was when we noticed her chest, we top up fed her for a bit as she was smaller and struggling and the vet was very insistent she more than likely wouldn't make it, but she went on to be absolutely fine and actually went to a home with 2 of her sisters, this was 18 months ago and she's still fine.
So provided she grows and feeds there's lots of hope....

[MarkB]

Thanks everyone. I will pass the info onto Stacey. I don't think major surgery would be an option, so hopefully the bottle feeding will do the trick. I haven't seen the kitten as we live about 60 miles apart.

[MarkB]

Quick update. He seems to be doing OK and has even started walking, although quite wobbly.

[booktigger]

Aww, that's good

[booktigger]

Aww, that's good

[MarkB]

I asked if it was the black and white, as it looks tiny, but it is the tabby, so seems to be doing well.

[Janey]

Great news!