Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Bone loss and fractures in two young cats from meat-only diet
By Dimopoulou, M et al.·Published in Veterinary and comparative orthopaedics and traumatology : V.C.O.T·2010·Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism in two cats: evaluation of bone mineral density with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and computed tomography.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
Two three-month-old Abyssinian cats were brought to the vet because they were limping, constipated, and having trouble walking. Their diet had consisted mainly of meat, which led to serious bone issues, including weak bones and multiple fractures. Sadly, one cat had to be euthanized due to severe health problems, but the other cat improved after switching to a balanced commercial diet. Over the following weeks, tests showed that her bone health was getting better, indicating that the new diet helped restore her bone density.
People also search for: cat limping and constipation · Abyssinian cat diet problems · cat bone health treatment
Abstract
Two three-month-old, intact female Abyssinian cats were presented with a history of lameness, constipation and ataxia. The cats had been fed a diet composed almost exclusively of meat. Both showed severe osteopenia and multiple pathological fractures on radiography. Following euthanasia of the more severely affected cat, postmortem examination revealed changes consistent with nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism and fibrous osteodystrophy, such as cortical thinning, massive connective tissue invasion in the diaphysis of long bones, and hypertrophy of the chief cells in both parathyroid glands. After introducing a balanced commercial diet to the surviving cat, bone mineralisation improved from the baseline value, and at subsequent examinations at three, six and 22 weeks later, as indicated by bone mineral density measurements obtained by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and computed tomography.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19997669/