Summary
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.
Keywords
All meat syndrome - feline - fibrous osteodystrophy - hyperparathyroidism