I recently stumbled on an interesting discussion in a Maine Coon Breeder Education Facebook Group that I help to moderate, and it inspired me to write this post. The Facebook Group discussion, like any discussion where opinions differ, had me wheel spinning and tongue biting almost immediately. I found myself typing up this long response to share my thoughts and then quickly decided against it. Who wants to be made to think their personal view on a topic might not be as black and white (right or wrong) as they think? I’ve learned the hard way time and time again, the answer to that question, more often than not, is no one.
After a nearly 2 year break since my last opinion piece blog post, I thought this was an especially important topic to tackle. I understand that others may have differing perspectives, but here I will share my own.
Feline Hip Dysplasia: A Maine Coon Breeder’s Perspective.
In my limited experience, despite the opinions of some, OFA is still most definitely a dog program first and foremost and a cat program second. What I mean by that is OFA’s cat health program is still very new in comparison, and to date, it does not see a fraction of RADs for cats as they do for dogs. As such, OFA’s guidelines for what to exclude from breeding can be a bit more rigid than PawPeds (which only evaluates cats).
That being said, for those interested in reading them over, there are multiple papers out there that help to explain why a dog’s hip and a cat’s hip and how they use them differ. For example, subluxation alone for a cat is not always concerning in and of itself. Matter of fact, cats NEED some laxity to be as nimble and agile as they are known to be. On the other hand, too much subluxation in the hip of a large breed dog like a Great Dane could quickly become debilitating.
We also need to keep in mind that female cats go into heat and birth much more often than female dogs. Why do I mention this? Because we could easily see mild subluxation (with no other orthopedic findings) on a cat who recently went into heat or delivered a litter. OFA actually says you are better off waiting until a month after either event to get the best results. It can be more challenging to accomplish this with a female cat than a female dog, given the frequency of their estrus cycle and silent heats.
For those more experienced breeders or veterinarians reading along, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying we should breed with a cat that has OFA graded moderate or severe hip dysplasia or PawPeds grade 2/3, especially when there is a shallow acetabulum, misshapen femoral head, or other orthopedic conditions found. What I’m cautioning against is being quick to throw the baby out with the bath water and that is essentially what we are doing when we are so rigid in our thinking. We end up excluding breeding stock from wonderful pedigree lines that simply have some mild laxity seen on RADs, with no other findings, familial history of orthopedic disease, or current orthopedic symptoms. Is this really a wise thing to do, given the already narrow gene pool we have to work with?
Here are a few resources that have been shared with me over the years that have helped shape my current opinion on the topic (these resources come from other breeders who cared enough to help mentor and guide me over the last 5 years of breeding and for that guidance and support I am truly grateful):
The Feline Hip: How is it Different to the Canine - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308971619_The_feline_hip_-_how_is_it_different_to_the_canine
Feline hip dysplasia: A challenge to recognise and treat - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11148904/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0gRpX8t86E6tSgN7GFf-0_6Oc_qDK7EQoIhhooNRLAvzCjy1C0KtiRAu4_aem_-mEvjtYh1pQYniO-vKtW8g
This article and study (linked below) while focused on dogs and not specific to cats, still helps to explain why it’s so very important to ensure you have a veterinary doctor that is skilled with getting the proper hip positioning when obtaining X-rays for a Hip Grading Health Program like OFA, PennHip, or PawPeds. The results are only as good as the X-rays being submitted! And, as you can see from this example study (60% or more), animals with mild laxity and no other findings are often times actually decent hips positioned improperly, which can unfortunately give the appearance of mild to moderate laxity.
Check out the graph in section 4.3 of the article linked below entitled “Breed Specific Breeding Strategy [for the] Maine Coon” which provides a visual representation of the disparity between what OFA grades as fair/mild compared to what PawPeds grades 0/1. To me, this further supports the thought that if we neutered all cats with OFA’s fair/mild grade we risk limiting our gene pool unnecessarily. Of course it’s important to note that OFA gives breeders the option to publish results (whereas PawPeds does not); therefore, these findings may exclude an unknown percentage of test results, favorable or not.
At the end of the day, hip grading is a tool for the toolbox. It’s not the be all end all for predicting orthopedic health of our pets. Two cats with perfect hips can be bred and create offspring with less than perfect hips (I have a theriogenologist dog breeder friend that has seen just this), or you can take a cat with mild subluxation and pair it with a cat that has normal hips and create offspring with good hips (which has been my personal experience). It’s really not as cut and dry as some would have you think.
OFA says it like this (I’ve modified the text to better suit the topic of cats versus dogs):
“No one can predict when or even if a dysplastic cat will start showing clinical signs of lameness due to pain. The severity of the disease can be affected by environmental factors, such as caloric intake or level of exercise. There are a number of dysplastic cats with severe arthritis that run, jump, and play as if nothing is wrong and some cats with barely any arthritic x-ray evidence that are severely lame.”
So what should a new breeder do with all of this?
Well, my first suggestion would be to get yourself a knowledgeable and experienced mentor. The importance of a mentor, or at the very least a handful of knowledgeable and experienced breeder friends is invaluable!!
Next, I would draft up your own personal mission statement and cattery goals, including your individual plans and expectations when it comes to health screening. Over time you will see that as your knowledge and experience increases, things are not always so black and white. We need to be emotionally intelligent enough to interpret and work within the gray area and adjust our breeding plans accordingly, but of course it goes without saying, we should NEVER make breeding decisions at the expense of our cats’ physical or mental health.
Last, and certainly not least, I would encourage you to test within a health program like OFA or PawPeds, and if given the option, consider opting to have your results made public. The more we as breeders focus on breeding with cats that have a solid ancestral history of health screening (such as HD screening or HCM screening via routine echocardiogram exams), the more likely we will be to eliminate those conditions from the Maine Coon gene pool.
*Post was edited for clarity 8-March-2024 @ 13:58 EST
