By selecting Persians for the brachycephalic (short-nosed) appearance, we have actually made it harder for them to breathe, increased the chance of skin, dental, and eye disease, and made giving birth riskier and more difficult. Scottish Folds are used as a model for studying pain and arthritis because the mutations that cause the folds in their ears also lead to painful degeneration in their bones and cartilage. Manx cats are prone to back pain, constipation, and other elimination problems because of spinal cord deformities. Maine Coon cats are prone to heart disease, and Siamese cats have a
...more
