Is there such a thing as an SEN cat?

[BritBratGrot]

Not educational obviously, but not sure what other phrase to use.

I mean a cat who is significantly below average performance mentally

We've got two kittens recently and they're both gorgeous. One of them was definitely the runt of the litter and he just doesn't play in the same normal way his sister does. He wanders around and then just sits and stares kinda vacantly. He's very placid and eg doesn't play fight back when she pounces on him. I don't think I've ever really seen him 'play'. Though having said that I think he was just this second playing with his sister's tail, but that's honestly the first time.

He doesn't bury his plops in the litter, she does. He wanders off regularly during dinner, she doesn't.

He is noticeably smaller (just 650g to her 1000) at nearly 12 weeks. They got a sniffle and had a temp last week which they're both just recovering from.

The charity which rehomed then to us assure us the vet gave him a clean bill of health, though the foster worker thinks he's got a different dad from the rest of the litter and might have been premature, he looks different from the rest of them.

Is this a thing in cats?

Some are super bright (remembering my puss who would open doors and find exactly where I hid the hair clips that she adored playing with). Some are….not.

He may have been deprived of oxygen at birth I suppose, and that could be affecting him.

On the other hand - some cats are just dimwits.

Cats are mammals just like us. Of course they can have SN! They can have the equivalent of DS, CP and any number of other issues that we have. Some are also just a bit thick…!

My beloved now departed Boycat clearly had some issues. Physically he was the most magnificent house panther I've ever seen. But he was just about the thickest cat I've known, was so clumsy we defined him as dyspraxic (for a cat), was very wary indeed of anything new, and had the attention span of a paralytic gnat. At the same time he was exceptionally loving towards me and loved his sister too, who seemed to look out for him.

Not sure whether he was born like it, they were litter siblings clearly from the same parents going by looks & shape and were part of a feral colony that was trapped when they were about a year old. But he also had a very small but deep scar on the side of his face so he may well have had a head injury as a kitten.

Surprisingly, when I had a family of mice move in to the conservatory he turned out to be a fabulous mouser!

I would say that as long as the vet thinks he's fine physically, enjoy the differences of your ND cat. Just think about keeping him as indoor only - we reckoned that if Boycat ever got out into my own back garden he wouldn't survive 5 minutes.

In humans, unusually low birthweight is associated with a higher risk of health issues including brain development related. Not always the case of course, but statistically more likely. So I wouldn’t be surprised if “runt of the litter” animals have the same.

We had a cat who had been run over at one point before we got him and with hindsight, we’re fairly certain he was brain damaged. He had very little idea what was going on in life 😂 He was a sweetheart though, but very definitely lived in his own little world.

My orange kitten is thick as pigshit, bless him. He's very affectionate but he's a complete dickhead. My older moggie often looks at me as if to say "Really? You thought this was a good idea?"

We have two adult cats.. Our girl is super smart, watches, takes everything in and makes a plan but on the flip side is a little socially awkward. Our boy is extra friendly, loves everyone and everything but is absolutely not smart. He lives his life with a ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ attitude. You could say they’re both just extra special

Oh yes! My boy cat definitely has something wrong with him. He's scared of everything. Including me if I move to fast, or enter a room when he's not expecting it. He wants to be held and cuddled ALL the time and sits and cries at my feet if I don't. At times, he'll sit in the middle of the room and just yowl, on repeat, for ages. Doesn't want anything. I just think gets stuck in a pattern. He likes other cats but is terrified if he gets anywhere near them and pees himself. He lets me pill or deflea him with no resistance, he's so scared.

Whereas my female cat is sharp as a tack. She watches me, when I'm putting food away. And if I haven't put it away properly, she waits until I've left the room and then sneaks in and knows where it is, because she watched me. She knows the word 'No' and if she's asking to be fed and I say no, will instantly give up and walk away.

I have a congenital disability, no cat expert, but I guess stuff that can happen to humans could happen to cats. Less oxygen to the brain or less blood or something because they were squished by siblings in the womb for instance, I guess could hurt cats like it can humans!

Aww lovely to hear about all your special cats, thanks for sharing. They all seem to be dimbo boys with clever sisters, interesting!

I'm hoping he will learn from his sister. She's currently helping him clean his face etc, which is adorable. But she's also a lot more active and always pouncing on him, and I worry he'll feel bullied since we're still shutting them into a room together at nighttime so no escape

Thanks for sharing.

I guess I don't know how much this has been studied. It feels obvious that things can go wrong in the prices from fertilisation to birth in animals just as in humans, but I think I wanted to hear other tales of this.

He is a beautiful and cuddly cat, and if he's a bit of a soppy lap monster then that's fine by me. I hope he's got enough wits about him to eat and grow to adulthood is my main concern, as after being ill and losing 100g from his starting weight of 720, he's been very diddy indeed and needs bulking up.

Currently licking and sucking up recovery food, which i have to continually prod with a fork towards him at every meal. I'm not sure I want to sign up to 20 years of this, but happy to do it while he regains some weight.

He seems to know I'm an important caregiver as he often wants to be close to me

We had a cat like that. He had this vacant look in his eyes and even if you put a toy under his nose, he’d look at you as if to say, ‘what do I do with this?’ He’d lie on the rug and once he’d actually learned his own name (it took a long time), it’d take an awful lot to move him. He wasn’t deaf, just lazy and without much oomph.

He actually went missing when he was 7 and he never came back. We were obviously really upset but we couldn’t honestly say he had any quirks or personality. We loved him but yep, it seemed like there was very little going on in his head.

We had a cat who was slightly different. She was a rescue kitten, the runt of the litter. She was tiny when we got her, grew very little and could twist herself into bizarre shapes. She had what we called goblin time at the same time every night when she would zoom around the house. We absolutely adored her. Our boy cat pretended to hate her, but we found them curled up together each night. She became ill during lockdown, diagnosed with a tumour and we had to have her pts. Unfortunately due to lockdown we couldnt be with her and had to wait in the car until they brought her out to us. She was only 6, but we gave her the best life we could. We miss her dearly.

A close friend of mine had a cat who had evidently been through a traumatic birth experience (deprivation of oxygen) and definitely had some cognitive issues. He didn't know how to do some basic cat activities such as washing himself. But she had two other cats who would do it for him. He was a total sweetheart.

My DBro & SiL had a pair of Burmese kittens; one was normal size but the other was definitely the runt of the litter (they knew this when they got them, the breeder was very up front). They fed Cassie on a special paste to help her bulk up a bit and she ended up not just bigger than her sister but as big as their father, and Burmese toms tend to be distinctly bigger than queens.

Here's a pic of darling Boycat gazing at me with no room in his tiny brain except loves mama. You can see the tiny scar on his face that he'd had for at least 5 years by then. I was tempted to mark the picture as "sensitive image", as he was a very sensitive boy!

One of ours comes over as having mental health issues. Very sweet but not right in the head.

Recently found a video of when we first met her at the rescue centre. All her siblings were playing, curious, cuddling - basically normal kittens.

And then there's ours, cowering in a corner.

Yes, turns out she was born that way. We love her dearly but as you say, not what we were intending to sign up for.

They come in a wide range of intelligence, just like us. My rescue girl is sharp as a tack, learns incredibly fast and remembers everything. If you're trying to give her a pill or medicine or something you can trick her exactly once, then you've got no chance. She understands everything in her environment, including that cars are safe when parked and dangerous when the engine is on.

My senior cat is not very bright. I absolutely adore her, we're very bonded, she has a lovely temperament and is never ill, ever. But she's not clever. Once she dislocated her ankle and after it was put back she wasn't supposed to jump for a few weeks. We put a ramp up to her window seat. With the best will in the world she could not understand the ramp. Other cat got it in five seconds.

Paddington who I adopted last year was incredibly thick. He is utterly adorable and a lovely cat. Unfortunately his lack of brain cell meant he just couldn’t see that Penelope didn’t want to play with him, which led to her becoming terrified of him. (He would just sit too close staring at her) So he had to be re homed. As it wasn’t fair on her.

My elderly boy cat is beautiful but dim. He can’t jump. Nothing to do with his age, he never has been able to. We have to put a box so that he can get onto the bed. He is afraid of everything, including the red dot. His sister jumps over him, opens doors and cupboards jumps on top of wardrobes and then jumps on top of him when he walks past. He is just permanently bewildered by life.

My old girl didn't have SEN but definitely a personality disorder 🙀 She was incredibly beautiful and people were compelled to stroke her only to have their hand taken off before I could warn them 😳 She especially hated my mother and would attack her for no apparent reason although maybe a good judge of character She loved me and would come for cuddles then savage me after ten minutes.

Everyone assumed she'd been abused or neglected as a kitten but nope, just a sociopath 🙄

Pics attached of beautiful but evil cat 😺

I have three cats.

two are standard cats.

one is the most stupid cat I have ever met and I’ve met a lot of cats. If he has a brain cell in there it is not obvious.

he is however very cuddly so we forgive him.

We have a Burmese who is as thick as a brick. She has never learned to open doors or cupboards or any of the basic things cats can generally learn to do. She can't 'scope' jumps so she is very clumsy. She likes to stand in the sink while I clean my teeth, but regularly falls out of it while trying to turn around. She is scared of the garden and prefers to only go outside with a human escort. She is lovely though, despite her cognitive limitations.

We have a cat who was the runt but also separated from mum too early, so definitely lacking in cat skills. I think the only thing she ever managed to catch was a dozy moth. She's not done too badly thought- she's turning 18 this year ! For the past 8 years we've said oh, she won't live much longer... But she's still here! Definitely in her dotage now.

Here's to many, many happy years with your dopey boy OP!