What's your opinion on oriental cats? Both long hair and short hair? They're my dream cat, but if they have very serious health issues I'll just adopt only shelter kitties. I was planning on saving up for one when I live on my own, I have two shelter kitties of my own already :) would it be bad to get one from a breeder?
They’re a delight! c: I was lucky enough to work with fourteen of them a few years back, and I loved every single one. They’re one of my favorite breeds, because I love a sleek-looking talky animal. They’re not an inherently unethical breed, like the Scottish fold, but they do have some health problems you should be aware before you get the noodle cat of your dreams.
PKD (polycystic kidney disease) is the biggest issue. It causes pockets of fluids (cysts) to form inside the kidneys. These cysts are present from birth and grow and multiply as the cat ages. They don’t usually cause problems until around 7 years old, at which point they often overwhelm good kidney tissue and begin causing organ failure. It’s a very difficult disease to predict: there could just be one cyst or thirty. You won’t even know they’re there for a long time.
Oriental shorthairs and longhairs are BOTH genetically prone to PKD. Thankfully, there’s now a genetic test, so a good breeder should do everything they can to ensure that their cats are free of the problematic genes. They should also be willing to prove it to you, by allowing you to examine the test results yourself.
Dental disease is another big one. OSH/LH’s both are vulnerable to weird dental problems, primarily FORLS (Feline Odontoclastic resorptive lesions). It’s a particularly baffling problem, where the cat’s immune system basically decides that the teeth and gums are The Enemy and Must Be Destroyed. The only treatment is removing the teeth entirely.
There’s no genetic test for this one; you have to talk to the breeder about it and hope they’re honest about their lineage’s health.
Hepatic amyloidosis is the last Big One I can think of. This is when an abnormally folded protein (amyloid) begins to build up in the liver (or any organ, tbh, but let’s focus on the liver because it’s the Big One). These misfolded proteins replace good, working cells, and can lead to organ failure. It usually develops between 1-5 years old.
There’s no genetic test available for it yet either. The relatively early onset of the disease (most breeders begin breeding their cats at 2 years old), means most breeders have a pretty good idea of whether or not their lines are affected. The earlier a disease starts, the sooner they can go ‘oh, shit, no, I gotta pull those lines right now’.