Wyoming Democrat,
Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, December 7, 1906
#graham remains 800% done
Here’s my take on this week’s DS9 episode “Life Support”. Happy #DeepSpaceSunday!
You can look to teachers and professors for advice, and to find contacts in your desired field to ask about employment prospects before you go into debt for an expensive degree.
Source: reddit.com/r/LifeProTips
thedoomedgemini-deactivated2018 asked:
Munchkin cats are relatively new, really too new to know much about them with certainty.
They are most certainly NOT like ferrets though. If you look at a ferret skeleton they actually have fairly long legs, just a low carriage.
We haven’t exactly characterized what the mutation is in Munchkin cats that causes their deformity. It’s not chondrodysplasia like many dog breeds, as the head isn’t affected. There are other types of long bone deformities it may be, based on similarities to human conditions, but which one is the best description remains to be seen.
We do know that the gene responsible is homozygous lethal, meaning that the kittens die in the uterus if they inherit two copies of this gene. That rings alarm bells for me. A foetus doesn’t become non viable just because it has short legs, so what else does this gene affect?
We know lordosis (curved spines) are more of a problem in Munchkin cats, even though breeders deny it.
Health concerns are typically worse with more extreme anatomy. It’s possible that an individual cat who happens to have the Munchkin gene will be okay. My concern is that if breeders forever aim for shorter, longer cats, then we will run into more and more problems, generation by generation and then we will be in exactly the same situation with dachshunds. It is the constant striving for extremeness, and often deliberate inbreeding, that gives us the devastating problems we see in dogs.
Cat breeders do typically have a more open view of stud books, but these problems will still potentially be there.
It’s also a little concerning that Munchins (and their associated special crossbreeds) are based on a single gene. This raises ethical concerns. Also of concern is that all these Munchkins are descended from the same, single cat. It might take twenty years, but unless it’s very carefully managed that willbe a problem.
So not as bad as dogs, still somewhat questionable, but definitely not like ferrets at all.
Perhaps you and @melredcap should talk. You both asked nearly the same question.
And now because nobody asked for it, here’s a list of the breed posts that have been done so far.
And bonus:
And the breeds I have declined to write about, mostly because they are not common enough around me:
Well Vetling’s I think that might be it for the breed posts. It’s been a marathon and I’m not sure there are any more that I can write.
But there are 95 of them there for you, plus three bonus ones if you count the jokes.
For reference, the breeds I declined to write about are either because they are crossbreeds, or too rare where I am for me to make a fair generalization. These are conditions I’m seeing in practice currently.
@tinsnip I think you might find this list as fascinating a well of random specialized info as I do!