So I have a kitten who hasn't grown in the past 3 weeks we have had him. The vet thinks he is about 8 - 9 weeks old (though the woman we bought him off said he was 9 weeks when we got him) but he is about the size of a 4 week old kitten.

The vet thinks he may well have dwarfism - has any one come across this before?

Apart from a dodgy tummy recently which has cleared up with anti biotics he is perfectly healthy and lively and has a big appetite!

This picture will hopefully put into context how little he is!!

IMG-20110831-00054.jpg

awww hes tiny!!! hopefully hell be ok without health problems

Oh bless he is Tiny. Is that a normal size remote? How much does he weigh?

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You might find it interesting to read up about munchkin cats and any issues they have, as they are sadly a breed where people have decided to cash in on this abnormality
As he is still young though I would keep an eye on his weight.

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yes it's a normal sized remote!!

he weighs around 400g at the moment which is obviously very low. I have tried to do some reading up, but he doesnt quite seem to fit in with any of the descriptions. His legs arent out of proportion with the rest of his body, though i dont know if this will change as he gets older?

when we got him he was the same size as all the other kittens but i guess by now they could have grown a lot since we got him!!

I assume there is some sort of genetic test for dwarfism, it might be something to look into. I dont know much about cat dwarfism but perhaps there are different types as with human dwarfism.

For now I would concentrate on feeding plenty to see how he gets on, it may just be that he is undersize and underweight, especially as the vet seems to think the woman lied about his age.

What are you currently feeding, and how much?

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Wow I have 2 small kittens at 12 weeks De-de is 850gm and Dotty 690gram they have a bit of a troubled start so may just be down to that. Do you know anything about his background was he wormed flead ect alot of my kittens growth problems are pointing to that.

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he is currently on ID prescription diet food as he had diarrhea. he was on normal kitten food before that. he is eating a full pouch of this a day.

He is from a litter of 5, they said he was wormed and flead when we got him but i suppose if they lied about his age this could be wrong too? He has on his final dose of wormer at the moment from what we have given him.

the vet said that his head is slightly proportionally bigger than his body which is why he thinks he might have dwarfism.

Hopefully he will start putting a bit more food away as thats still quite low but then he is still very small. Do you offer unlimited food? Which brand? It may benefit him to move him to a high meat content food in order to up his protein etc.

Honestly if they lied about his age (and rehomed honestly an extremely underweight kitten, they should have took him to the vet themselves about his weight) I would doubt he was wormed, which could drastically impact weight gain.

I hope he is just undersized and underweight at the mo and will begin to grow normally soon.

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Looking at this pic of him I would be inclinded to agree with your vet his head is large for his body and his legs seem 'stumpy' dont know a better word to describe. I have had underweight kittens (this last lot of fosters) but they always seemed 'in proportion' legs were long and thin (your kittens seem short and wider than 'normal')

I hope your kitten is ok and grows to be a healthy and happy kitten xxxxx

ETA http://sydney.edu.au/vetscience/lida...r/299/Dwarfism thought this link may be useful xxx

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