Osteochondrodysplasia (Scottish Fold cartilage/bone disease)
The TRPV4 mutation that folds a Scottish Fold's ears also disrupts cartilage growth throughout the skeleton, causing shortened or misshapen limb bones, a thickened and inflexible tail, and progressive, often painful degenerative joint disease. A cat needs only one copy of the mutation to have folded ears and be at risk; two copies bring more severe skeletal disease. Because a folded ear cannot exist without at least one copy of the mutation, the appearance and the disease risk cannot be separated by any test.
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TRPV4 Scottish Fold genotyping result for both parents (UC Davis VGL), confirming N/SF rather than SF/SF, plus a veterinary orthopaedic assessment of the individual cat — genotyping rules out the more severely affected homozygous form but cannot rule out the disease itself in a fold-eared cat