Posted on 01/10/2006 11:08:17 PM PST by beaversmom
A photo of a one-eyed kitten named Cy drew more than a little skepticism when it turned up on various Web sites, but medical authorities have a name for the bizarre condition.
"Holoprosencephaly" causes facial deformities, according to the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health. In the worst cases, a single eye is located where the nose should be, according to the institute's Web site.
Traci Allen says the kitten she named Cy, short for Cyclops, was born the night of Dec. 28 with the single eye and no nose.
"You don't expect to see something like that," the 35-year-old Allen said by telephone from her home in Redmond in central Oregon.
Allen said she stayed up all night with the deformed kitten on her recliner, feeding Cy a liquid formula through a syringe. She says she cared for the kitten the next day as well, until it died that evening.
Allen had taken digital pictures that she provided to The Associated Press. Some bloggers have questioned the authenticity of the photo distributed on Jan. 6.
AP regional photo editor Tom Stathis said he took extensive steps to confirm the one-eyed cat was not a hoax. Stathis had Allen ship him the memory card that was in her camera. On the card were a number of pictures _ including holiday snapshots, and four pictures of a one- eyed kitten. The kitten pictures showed the animal from different perspectives.
Fabricating those images in sequence and in the camera's original picture format, from the varying perspectives, would have been virtually impossible, Stathis said.
Meanwhile, Cy the one-eyed cat may be dead, but it has not left the building.
Allen said she's keeping the cat's corpse in her freezer for now, in case scientists would like it for research.
She said one thing's for certain: "I'm not going to put it on eBay."
Had a medical condition....I'd a' never guessed.
Many thanks Mr. Obvious Headline Writer!
In an FR thread yesterday about the little kitty, some posters were skeptical and thought the photo was photoshopped.
Self-ping for later.
Disney on ice. :D
Yes, I read that thread too. Someone posted a link to a simliar picture of a cyclops cat so I knew this one was true. I think it was at messybeast.com
All the kittens I have had experience with were born with their eyes closed and they didn't open for a couple of weeks. Color me skeptical.
My God. And I thought I was sick!
I prefer to think of it as a "medical condition."
Sorry it's shopped. Anyone who has taken and anatomy class or has done anatomy drawing knows this is a hoax.
A bad one at that.
Those aren't even canine teath.
Most are born dead; but humane people will try to make comfortable the unfortunate for as long as possible. We had a blind lamb a couple of years ago that reached adulthood because (my recently departed) Dad called for it, and led it around with his voice so it would be able to find the feed bunks. He followed Dad around like a puppy.
Canine teath=Feline teath
"Don't worry, those people are seeing things."
Cyclopia or synophthalmia (known medically as holoprosencephaly (HPE)) is a gross lethal deformity of the skull.
The eyes are fused into a single enlarged eye that is placed below the nose (the nose may or may not form, if it forms it resembles a proboscis).
Much of the face may be missing, such that the eye and proboscis (if present) are placed near the crown of the skull. Cyclopia results from a failure of the embryo's forebrain to divide into 2 hemispheres. It can result from defective genes or from certain toxins. These seem to interrupt development by interfering with a protein called Sonic hedgehog (Shh). Severe cases of cyclopia result in stillbirth or in death within a few hours of birth.
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