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There's a two-faced cat (often called "Janus cats," they're rare but not unheard of) who I believe lives in Australia, who is the oldest surviving two-faced cat, and one of the only ones on record to make it to adulthood. Or at least the only one that's still alive. Animals with severe cranial deformities rarely survive for more than a few hours or days because they're severely brain damaged. When the skull doesn't form properly in utero, the brain is often malformed as well, and many kittens born like that have no higher brain function.

The other issue that impedes survival is that, even if the brain is functional, often these cats will have two tracheas, one for each nose, so when, inevitably, one nose inhales while the opposite mouth is swallowing, they asphyxiate. The reason the Australian cat (whose name is Frank and Louis, so each face as a name) survived was because he has only one trachea, and he was also hand-raised by a vet who had the means to run a feeding tube straight into his stomach. It turns out that may not have been necessary in his case, and he can apparently eat fine on his own as an adult, but the vet who adopted him had prior knowledge of that being a common problem with two-faced kittens. The story goes that a breeder brought him into her office as a newborn to be put down, because she didn't want her "line" associated with birth defects, even though the "Janus cat" condition is not hereditary, it's a random mutation, and indeed probably happens fairly often in utero, but in most cases the mother cat will re-absorb a malformed feotus before it reaches full term.

The Janus condition is believed to be caused by a protein that's encoded by one of the genes that dictates the formation of facial features misfiring (both the gene and the protein are called the "sonic hedgehog," because it looks like a spikey ball under a microscope) and causing facial features to duplicate. At least in theory, it could happen in most mammals, and there have been a few reported cases in other animals, but it seems to be much more common in cats for some reason. It's still quite rare even in cats, but the overwhelming majority of reported cases of two-faced animals are domestic or feral cats.

I think the sonic hedgehog gene has also been linked to conditions like cyclopia, which is where the only facial feature that forms at all is a single, over-sized eye that's generally right in the centre of the face (or what should have been the face). I know there have been a few pictures of at least one of those kittens floating around the interwebs. It's also been reported to have occurred a few times in humans, though it's incredibly rare in any animal, and it's always fatal. A newborn with cyclopia has no mouth and no functional nose (sometimes there's a malformed nose-like structure in the back of the head, but it isn't functional), so it cannot intake nutrients and oxygen outside of the womb. They also lack all higher brain function, meaning they cannot be "sentient."

In humans, sonic hedgehog glitches are believed to sometimes be the cause of neural tube defects like spina bifida and holoprosencephaly, among others. Things like the "Janus" condition and cyclopia have been reported a few times in humans (cyclopia is actually a severe form of holoprosencephaly), but there have only been a handful of human cases. These sorts of defects are incredibly rare in any species, but for some unknown reason, they seem to appear most often in cats. Part of that could just be that feline cases are reported more often. Many people commonly let their cats roam free (more commonly than other pets, at least), which means that un-spayed cats are more likely to bring home "surprise litters" than, say, an un-spayed dog. Also, because cats are often well-loved pets, any abnormalities in their offspring are more likely to attract human attention and entered into public record. We really have no way of reliably knowing how often these sorts of defects may occur in wild animals, for example. Since many of these defects result in the newborn dying at or shortly after birth, it's difficult to know how often it occurs because they never become a part of the adult population that is more easily observed and recorded. Also, in the case of many animals, the mother will consume any of her offspring that are stillborn or die shortly after birth. It's also common in many mammals for the mother to instinctually abandon "defective" newborns, and if she doesn't eat it, any number of other carnivores in the area almost certainly will. All this adds up to the fact that not only are we unable to observe these sorts of birth defects in adult populations of wild animals, but it's also extremely unlikely to ever find any remains of these animals that have died at birth (or shortly thereafter).

So, point is, although these birth defects seem to appear more often in cats, it's difficult to know for sure how accurately that reflects reality.



...good God, I'm such a ******** geek. This is actually what I choose to do in my spare time: read about deformed babies. And not only do I choose to read about deformed babies, but after the fact, I go around openly admitting to reading about deformed babies and enthusiastically make other people read about deformed babies. I am a sick, sick man. emotion_facepalm

Every so often, I feel like I catch a glimpse of myself from a more external perspective, and sometimes I'm kind of appalled by what I see. How am I not a celibate hermit living in the Yukon, miles away from the nearest civilisation? How is it that I've found people who will actually willingly interact with me? lol

I'm honestly not that smart, I just read a lot. I actually know a lot more about human biology and birth defects than I do about cats. That's actually what led me to finding these articles about cranial and neural tube defects in cats: I was reading about a lot of these conditions as they occur in humans and ended up finding some articles about similar conditions in other animals. I intended to be a doctor once upon a time, and even started going to school for it. I definitely made the right call in abandoning any professional aspirations in medicine, but I still find it fascinating.

Another reason that cats (and many other animals) generally consume stillborn and/or defective offspring is to gain additional nutrients, which is also beneficial for the surviving members of the litter when they nurse. Rather than "wasting" the energy and nutrients necessary to prolong the life of a newborn who is unlikely to survive (and even if it did, it would still potentially "poison" the gene pool for future generations), they ingest that nutrients, and sort of "recycle" it, in a sense. It's still kind of sad, but it's just another instance of nature balancing itself out, and is ultimately best for all involved.

I never really considered myself a "cat person." It's not that I disliked them, I'd just never had the chance to really bond with a cat. Then about three years ago, I found a blue-and-white bicoloured kitty abandoned on the street. He was emaciated and dehydrated, but extremely friendly, so I scooped him up and took him home, planning to try to locate his owner, and if not, take him to a no-kill shelter, but...well, he's still here, haha. He's one of the coolest animals I've ever lived with, of any species. Unfortunately, he was blinded by a misdiagnosed fungal infection about six months ago, but that hasn't slowed him down one bit. He recently passed an exam to become a certified therapy animal. He's such an awesome cat. heart


Here's Frank and Louis:

Have y'all heard about what happens to math teachers when they vacation at the beach?
The become Tan Gents.

Dmitri is a great name! Hehehe Demi is a Cute Nickname meow! cat_whee Oooohhhhh Sounds SO CUTE Mew Mew!!! *Squeals and Purrs* cat_4laugh
You are correct though, tha is a Falsity Cats tha lose their eyesight normally don't have have any problems adjusting to new settings. cat_3nodding Cats are the Creatures of purr-fection we have flawless designs. cat_mrgreen Hehehe us Cats are very smart meow, and they tend to Manipulate their surrounds to suit them best in event of such a case as blindness. Learn to deal with things you fear the Most, you become more open to things. Tha is wha Dmitri did meow, he will never see again so no time like the present to start enjoying life. cat_mrgreen (Raven is going to stop replying to this meow it's taking up a lot of room and is not following the topic, though you are very interesting meow. If you want to continue this conversation you can send Raven PM. Please Send Raven a PM anyway though, if you find a Photograph of Dmitri, either from your Boy's Mobile {not sure wha you mean by Mobile sorry meow} or from you computer. Raven would loveys a Photograph of Dmitri with his "really adorable, perpetually wide-eyed-surprised facial expression" If you can please Mew Mew? )