Cats have lived among humans for thousands of years. Although only 5% of domestic cats are purebred, they are known to have hereditary diseases that are often the result of deliberate selection of domestic cats to develop individual physical characteristics. The main purpose of this thesis was to focus on 7 cat breeds and describe the main problems they face due to inappropriate breeding. The selected cats were well-known breeds popular with breeders, and each breed has at least one hereditary disease that significantly affects the welfare and health of the cats. Because of beauty standards applied to show cats, cat breeders appear to have focused primarily on the appearance of the animals rather than on the functionality of individual physical traits that had developed inappropriately, and they thereby compromise the long-term welfare of the animals. As a result of such selection, several hereditary diseases have also developed. For example, the Persian cat has difficulty breathing due to the short and squashed shape of its nose, the Devon Rex has a muscle disorder associated with short, curly hair, while the Scottish Fold has problems with bone and cartilage development in its paws due to its folded ears. In addition, the Ragdoll has a greater risk of thickening of the heart wall and its failure. The British Shorthair suffers from haemophilia, an irregular clotting of blood, the Siamese suffers from hydrocephalus, where fluid accumulates in the brain, and the Birman cat has a greater risk of developing hypotrichosis, which results in a severely weakened immune system. With the growing knowledge of hereditary diseases in cats, we can conclude that cat breeders in the future will pay more attention to the physical welfare of cats and not only to their physical characteristics.
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