(View cats below)

The Lyons Den Cattery currently is housing Persian cats for Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA-blindness) and Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD. Neither of these diseases interfer with the presentation of the other and the cats' health is not greatly compromised. Blind cats do remarkably well and often are hard to determine if they actually are blind. PKD may not cause kidney failure until the cat reaches old age. We try to minimize the cats used in research, thus the same cats can be used for both diseases and also for studying coat color inheritance.

Oriental Shorthairs are housed for an early onset cancer that appears as a mediastinal tumor of the thymic gland. Cancer appears before 2 years and is inherited as an autosomal recessive condition. Three carrier cats, a male and two females, are currently in the program. Other Orientals, which are genetically very diverse from Persians, are used to outbreed the Persians so that the Persian genetic studies will be more efficient and powerful and the colony has to deal with fewer long-haired cats.

Russian Blues have been in the colony for 2 years. Three adults have produced over 16 kittens that have been fixed and are being monitored in adopted homes for heart disease. The heart disease has a very minor presentation and the inheritance pattern has not been identified. All adults have completely normal exams but we have had kittens die with enlarged hearts and some cats have murmurs and very slighty abnormal EKGs, which could be very easily missed. Donations will help us follow these cats in their adopted homes.

Housing costs approximately $2.50 per day for each cat. Including general health care expenses, each cat costs approximately $1,000.00. General expenses include bloodwork twice per year, vaccinations, dental work and microchipping.

Sole sponsorship of a cat requires a $1,000.00 donation but shared sponsorship will be accepted at $50.00 or more donations. Checks can be made out to "Reagents of UC Davis" with a notation for the "Lyons Research Cats". Get your breed club together and immediately help genetics research in your favorite cat breed!

Send donations to:

Leslie Lyons, PhD

1114 Tupper Hall
Population Health & Reproduction
School of Veterinary Medicine
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616

	Duke is a seal point Himylayan. He is a carrier of the early onset blindness and is also positive for PKD. Duke can be used to breed to unrelated blind cats, producing blind and carrier control kittens that may also have PKD. We will also try to study the coat colors too. Duke is only of the colonies favorites as he roles on his back to get affection.
	Trakker is an Silver Oriental Shorthair with only a chance to carrier the gene for lymphosarcoma. Thus, he can not be used for the lymphosarocoma project but can be used to outbreed the Persians for the blindness study. He would be bred to blind females to produce, shorthair carriers with interesting coat colors. Very dominant, Trakker needs to be housed in a spearate room from other males.
	Bluebird is a blue Oriental Shorthair with only a chance of being a lymphosarcoma carrier. Like Trakker, she will be used to outbred the Persians for the blindness and PKD studies. She can be bred to blind males to produce shorthair cats that carry blindness and may have PKD. A big sweetheart, Bluebird is a love machine!
	Caught in the act, we have bred 16 Russian Blue kittens from 2 queens and one sire. These cats have been adopted but we continue to do health examinations and echocardiograms every 6 months to screen these cats for heart disease. Overseen by feline cardiologist, Mark Kittleson, local cats will come back to UCDavis but others are farther away, even in Pittsburgh!
	Patty is a blind seal point himylayan. Patty is a young female and hopefully one of the big breeders for the blindness study. Her first breeding produced Joy, a blindness carrier, and now we have Little Stevie Wonder. She will hopefully be a long-term breeder for the project.
	Little Stevie Wonder (female), a smoke Persian with a blind sire. Stevie should go blind by 16 weeks but currently has normal eye exams. Behavior indicates that she may not have full vision already. Stevie is most important for determining the progression of the disease. She will hopefully be a long-term breeder for the project.
	Kashmir's male kitten did not like the new male we put in the room. Showing who is boss, he has a 25% chance of getting lymphosarcoma by 2 years of age, a 50% chance of being a carrier and a 25% of not being a carrier. Thus, unless he gets cancer, he will no longer be used in the program. He will be adopted into a very special home where he remains intact and gets full chest x-rays every 6 months. We continue to cover his health care costs, thus donations can help cover these expenses.
	Kashmir has buns in the oven! She is a silver Oriental that is a known carrier of lymphosaroma. She has been bred to a known male carrier thus her kittens may be carriers, get lymphosaroma or be totally normal. We would prefer to breed her to a male with lymphosaroma but getting these cats is a difficult process. Kashmir is the hugging queen of the colony and a very good mother.
	Joy, in her Lion cut attire, is a offspring of our blind female Patty. Joy will be bred to blind males to produce blind and carrier control cats. She is petite and has to out compete Bluebird as the colony Lovemachine! Hopefully she will fall head over paws for our handsome blind male Persian.
	Kashmir's male and female kittens are full of energy. Easch one has a 25% chance of getting lymphosarcoma by 2 years of age, a 50% chance of being a carrier and a 25% of not being a carrier at all. Thus, unless they get cancer, they will no longer be used in the program. They will be adopted into very special homes where they remain intact and get full chest x-rays every 6 months. We continue to cover their health care costs, thus donations can help cover these expenses.
	Black blind male Persian is a handsome studly lover. Very friendly with even the human females, this male is from a different Persian line than Patty and is the sire of Stevie Wonder. Currently, Joy and Bluebird are is roommates and hopefully not playing hard to get!
	Three other Persian cats that has produced blind kittens are scheduled to join our team!
	Hissy Missy is cranky but a great mom. Kittens are expected any minute that have the blind male as the sire. Thus, half her kittens may go blind and the others are definite carriers. Missy and her kittens will be long-term colony teammates.

This site is under construction. Please visit again soon! We hope to have most of the site finish by November, 2000. Many of the current pages are the place holders for future information. Please provide suggestions to the webmaster: felinegenome@ucdavis.edu