Songbird

It's been almost a month since we Lost Princess Leia. If you remember, she was born with Petcus Excavatum which is a structural deformity. It's caused by a growth abnormality of the cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone resulting in a narrowing, irregularly flat or misshaped chest. We've had other kittens with Petcus Excavatum before, but Princess Leia was the worst case we have ever seen which contributed to her passing away. Yesterday we received another kitten with the same deformity.

Songbird was part of a litter of 8 kittens. Two of them died after birth. One of them was missing bones that had never completely formed. When the woman who owned the mother cat noticed something unusual about Songbird too, she contacted SNUGGLE Pet Rescue and we agreed to take her.

Apart from having a really flat chest, our 10-day old kitten is doing pretty well. She weighs 5.5 ounces though, so we have to work to get her up to 8 ounces. Because she has been used to nursing, it took some convincing to get her to take a bottle, but once again our very experienced Foster Care Volunteer got Songbird to make the switch.

We'll give this little girl time to settle in and then we will take her to the vet so we can get a better idea of what the treatment plan will be for her. Surgical correction for pectus excavatum is best done when kittens are 8 to 12 weeks old. Surgery involves anesthetizing the kitten and reshaping the ribs and expanding the chest, which allows more room for the lungs and heart to grow. An external split is attached with sutures to stabilize the chest. The kitten’s activity must be limit and the surgical site kept clean and bandaged until the split is removed in 3 to 4 weeks.