Does Your CH Cat Purr?
Although many of our cats may have cerebellar hypoplasia in common, it’s important to remember that they’re all individuals. By that, I don’t only mean they are impacted by CH to different degrees, but also that they each have their own personalities and habits.
Photo courtesy ipasha.
Sometimes it’s easy to see how CH may impact those qualities, but other times it can be more of a gray area. Do CH cats do some things because of their CH, or do they do those things simply because they are who they are?
While I don’t mean this to get too technical or philosophical it did pop into my mind when I came across a question from Sherry on the Facebook CH Cats & Kittens page. She mentioned that her CH cat Wonky has never purred. She wondered if that was normal for CH cats, and the community quickly responded.
Here’s a look at what some of the group’s members said. Please share your own stories in the comments below!
Kathleen: My CH kitty doesn’t purr either.
Stefanie: My guy couldn’t really meow at all for a while. He was a HUGE purrer though. Now he’s quite vocal, though it’s more like a trill or chirp than a meow.
Kim: I actually have a CH kitty who didn’t purr the first few years of his life. I just thought it was because he never learned or felt happy before because he and his sister came from a hoarding situation and took a little time to build confidence and feel safe. BUT it turned out that he actually had an auto-immune disorder called stomatitis and his mouth/throat was inflamed and sore the whole time and I had no idea. Not related to his CH. Purring was not an option for him because it hurt. Although I have met cats with stomatitis at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary who did purr. But with Tony, once we figured it out and treated it, removed some of the problem teeth (it attacks his teeth), he has not stopped purring. And they both do the chirpy/trilly noises too not a true meow.
Photo courtesy Martin Cathrae.
Kim: Max purrs a lot, but his meow sounds more like a tiny kitten mewing.
Megan: My Shakey Boy (God rest him…) never really purred or meowed unless something was very wrong… he did, however, squeak like a rubber balloon being rubbed.
Jaci: Caddy didn’t really purr until recently and she is 5… She meows all the time though!
Rebecca: My Buster (CH) purrs so loud and trills/ chirps. He purrs when you touch him and meows for attention.
Alice: My CH cat Shakes didn’t start purring until he was more than 1-year-old.
Chloe: I have a 2-year-old cat with CH. He is extremely vocal!! He meows very loud but is a very small.
In the end, I think Amber said it best: “I had a CH cat, Elliott (RIP) who was Siamese/tabby. True to his Siamese nature, he was quite the talkative guy. I think it is normal for all cats to be different. Doubt CH is culprit,” she said.
Life with Cerebellar Hypoplasia Cats 
Betty purrs, but it’s impossible to hear unless I have her right up next to my ear. When she was first found as a handful of fluff, I used to lie with her on my chest and hum. I figured it was the closest to purring I could do. She does “talk” ALL the time–she’s quite the conversationalist!
Wow, I can’t imagine no purring! Mimosa’s purrs are so loud it sometimes sounds like snoring. She was always a big purr-er since we adopted her but she wasn’t quite as vocal until she moved in with me a month after we adopted her (she was living with my husband for a while). I think once she became more confident in her surroundings she started purring louder and talking/meowing all the time. (I also probably made a mistake by talking back). Now I can’t get her to stop purring, meowing, chirping and making every other sound under the sun!
My CH kitty that we found at 8 months (now 6) is quite vocal. He purrs all the time when he gets attention. When he was younger, he purred so loud at the vet, they could hardly hear his heart with the stethoscope. He is also very vocal demanding attention but it’s a bit whiny. My other non CH cat only purrs when he is kneading and is not vocal except at meal time when he trills and when he wants in the bedroom in the am. I don’t think it’s a CH attribute, either.
My 3 month old CH kitty purrs all the time even when hes sleeping. The only time he doesnt purr is when he is getting a bath or when hes getting his medication ( he has ringworm).
I am starting to think that him not purring is because hes mad or scared.
Chairman didn’t purr til he was older. Now he huffs and purrs and snorts like a fat pug 🙂
We have a rescue, found in 2008. Vet said she had “shaken baby” syndrome- I think she has CH after seeing the videos. Don hops like a rabbit, walks with a high gait, shakes her head and falls over a lot. She is the sweetest cat ever, she doesn’t growl or hiss ever. She just has begun to purr, and by that I mean you can feel her purring under her neck and hear a slight clicking noise. When we first got her she couldn’t jump up or do stairs. Now she does both “well” sometimes falling down the stairs or tumbling to the floor when she jumps down. My question is – Don never covers her poop, she reaches her paw out from the shoulder to cover and does the motion of covering way up in the air. She frequently poops on the floor outside of her box. And yes stepping in it frequently. Is this something others have experienced? I think she may have a vision issue also, sometimes she almost appears cross eyed when she looks at you. I am happy to have found this site. Nice to put a name to her condition finallyl
Our ultra sweet and loving 13 week old (very small for her age) CH kitten doesn’t purr (at least yet). After only 5 days with us now, she has very quickly adapted to our ‘slick’ laminate floors – she is far less wobbly than she was on Day 1–she is now running at full speed across the floors — she still wobbles and fall over during the day as well. What’s worse is that she sadly seems to have Epilepsy also-we have noticed she is having 1 seizure a day for the past 4 days — only when she’s falling asleep or waking up- seizures last less than two minutes, she recovers quickly afterward, but we are completely sad and helpless when this is happening. She does poop outside the box because she doesn’t like the sand (probably too wobbly/unstable for her). Also, she seems to save up her urine for when she has a seizure and “Let’s it ALL go” — for a very teeny tiny kitten she creates quite a flood. Wondering if the CH is causing her not to be able to control her bladder well so she just “stores” / saves up her urine and then when she’s seizing and has no muscle control – that’s when it finally let’s go. We’re taking her to the vet immediately to see about epilepsy treatment.