Cat with Cerebellar Hypoplasia

We have two cerebellar hypoplasia cats, litter mates about two years old. Our female cat has always been better at walking and normal cat stuff, able to cross a room without falling or stopping to rest. For the last several days, though, she has been unable to walk more than a few steps without stopping to rest, and is extra wobbly when she does walk.

Our cat has been breathing through her mouth, as well, although it has not been heavy breathing, just normal, except that she is breathing with her mouth open. Our cat's appetite is normal (ravenous), but we have to take her to the food bowl. Normally, this cat is first in line, which accounts for her 15.6 lb of weight.

Our male is more active typically; Our female, though, likes to stay in her kitty bed most of the day and night. It goes without saying that they are indoors only, although we have 3 indoor/outdoor cats, as well. All are current on vaccinations.

Our regular veterinarian checked her out, took x-rays and ran bloodwork. The x-rays showed no fluid in or around lungs, all organs were of normal shape, size and location. The vet said she looked fine to her, but to keep an eye out for changes in her eyes, such as different sized pupils that might indicate pressure in her head. Nothing of the sort has been observed so far.

The blood test results won't be in for another day or two, but we suspect diabetes. We have had a diabetic cat in the past that required daily injections, so we can handle it if it comes to that.

One more possible symptom - the past couple of weeks we noticed that her ears had either grown or at least were not standing straight up as usual, just a little spread out from normal. I looked closely at them and they looked a little dirty so I gently cleaned both ears with a qtip - just the outer portion, not inside the canal, never losing sight of the tip.

Any thoughts?


My deepest apologies for being unable to respond to your question sooner. Although you may already have the answer to your questions, I would still like to answer your thoughts both for your use and for the benefit of our other readers.

My first thought, after reading the first few symptoms you mentioned, even before I reached the part of your letter with your own thoughts, I too was thinking that it was very important to not have tunnel vision. Just because your cat has cerebellar hypoplasia does not mean that she could not have another feline illness. Of course, you realized this as well, and brought your cat to the vet. But the entire time, I was thinking of feline diabetes. Feline diabetes can cause many of the very neurologic deficits you described, and can even lead to dirty ears and some of the other symptoms you described, and is often seen in overweight cats.

A second possibility is that, because of the dirty ears you noticed, is that your cat may have an inner ear infection. Cats that become ataxic, or wobbly, could have inner ear infections which can affect balance. Did your veterinarian explore this as a possibility? It can be quite difficult to detect inner ear infections due to the depth of the infection, but fortunately, if all other tests remain normal, these often clear up on their own.

Hopefully your veterinarian is doing full bloodwork, checking your cat’s kidneys, liver, potassium, and red cell count. Testing her for FeLV/FIV would be recommended because other cats in the house go outside, and therefore, are exposed themselves and exposing even your indoor cats to these cat conditions, despite up-to-date vaccinations.

Last but not least, I would like to add that I have seen a handful of cerebellar hypoplasia cats get worse, over time, with age. Although this is not typical, it can happen. Often you can change surroundings to make life easier for cats with cerebellar hypoplasia, including using shallow litter pans, keeping all of her essentials as close to her living area as possible, and doing whatever is needed to keep her most comfortable, if this is a progression of her disease. In only the most extreme, and very rare, cases of feline cerebellar hypoplasia have I seen cats progress so significantly that euthanasia was needed, but this would be lowest on the list of possibilities for your girl.

Keep up the good work and explore all of the possibilities you can with your veterinarian. You’re doing all of the right things for your cat. We would love to hear an update when you have one and invite you to write back again soon!

All the best,
Dr. Neely