Re: Can cats digest bones?

On 26 Nov 2003 09:34:11 +0800, Ablang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
dijo:

>       Last night, I was polishing off a KFC 2-pc original thighs & 
>drumstick.  I decided to let my cat have the drumstick since it had some 
>skin on it and some cartilage.  I saw her pull the drumstick off the plate 
>and put it on the floor, working on the cartilage on the drumstick.  I went 
>back to watching TV and later noticed the whole bone was gone!
>
>       So here I'm having visions of expensive surgeries to remove a bone 
>that won't come out.  Someone told me that cats can digest bones, while 
>dogs cannot.  Is this true?

I've had cats for decades. I have always shared my fried chicken with
them, (Aside -- Popeye's is much better than the Colonel.) I've never
had a problem with a cat, and that includes probably thousands of
bones given to them.

I realize that everyone parrots that you should not give chicken bones
to animals, although some qualify it just to cooked bones. Well, let's
use a little common sense here. First, what do cats in the wild eat?
Birds, of course, as well as other critters with small bones. Surely
their evolutionary process has provided instincts for how to handle
this. In fact, humans have the same instincts. I've eaten hundreds of
buckets of fried chicken over my lifetime, and I have yet to even
choke on bone. How do I manage that? Well, because I instinctively
strip the meat off and leave the rest of the bone. If I were starving
to death and the chicken part was all I had, I might crunch the bone
with my teeth to get the marrow out of the middle, but I still would
not swallow the slivery parts. Cats don't either. 

As a second consideration, consider what's in the cat's stomach. It's
pretty much the same as what's in a human stomach, that is, acid. Very
powerful acid, in fact. Try dropping a bone into that kind of acid and
see what happens. Calcium and acid don't get along well. There's a lot
of fizzing and commotion, and the acid ends up winning. My point is
that, if the bone makes it at least to the stomach, there should be no
further problems from it.

Over the years I've shared probably a thousand or more chicken bones
with my cat companions, and there has never been a problem. 

The last time this issue came up I posted more or less the same facts
and everyone said I was just lucky. So I responded by asking if, of
all the thousands of people who read this newsgroup, anyone could
report having had a problem feeding a cooked chicken bone to a cat.
Result? Not one response. My conclusion? That feeding chicken bones to
cats is dangerous is an urban myth. (Note I am talking strictly of
cats here -- dogs wolf their food down and it may be much more
dangerous for them.)

As for the fact that the bone you gave your cat was completely gone, I
suggest you search harder if you're really concerned. I'll bet it
turns up behind a piece of furniture somewhere. My cats always chew
the ends off a drumstick or thigh bone, and leave the middle portion,
although some of my cats have crunched the middle portion to get at
the marrow. They still leave the splintery parts, usually scattered
all over the floor. (Their job is to eat, sleep and poop. Mine is to
clean up after them. They perceive this as the natural order of
things. Tidiness is not in their job description.)

And before someone quotes a veterinarian who says it is dangerous, my
cat's vet (who I feel is extremely competent) says there is no problem
at all. She says she gives cooked chicken bones to her cats at home. I
suspect some vets may be as much the victim of urban mythology as the
public.

And I'll repeat my challenge: If anyone has ever had a cat suffer harm
as a result of eating a cooked chicken bone, please post. I still
think we'll get no reponses. It doesn't happen because it's an old
wives tale, probably created by extrapolation from dogs, for whom it
probably *is* dangerous.

--
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