Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism in cats

Two 3-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 introduction of a balanced commercial diet to the surviving cat, bone mineralization improved from the baseline value and at subsequent examinations three, six and 22 weeks later, as indicated by bone mineral density measurements.

 

Source : M. Dimopoulou et al., 2010. Nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism in two cats: evaluation of bone mineral density with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and computed tomography. Vet Comp Orthop Traumatol 23(1):56-61. PubMed ID: 19997669