my cat just started to choke on a bit of bone

[quickbeam]

As a relatively new raw feeder (we started over the summer) I've got to say I have found loads of benefits to raw feeding and have had a really positive experience with it.

However my biggest fear of raw feeding happened this evening when my cat started to choke on a chicken wing bone. He has had many chicken wings since switching to raw feeding and its never happened before but I've got to say I'm feeling pretty shaken at the moment and just looking for some reassurance!

He eats incredibly fast which we have struggled to slow so I dont think that helped.

It was a small, roundish part of the bone from the main body of the wing, it seemed to get wedged and he started to heave and bat at his mouth with his paws. I ended up putting my fingers into his mouth and then that seemed to dislodge the bone.

How can I stop this happening in the future? Has anyone had any bad luck with bones before?

Quickbeam

 

[ldg]

Yeah, it is scary. I remember when Flowerbelle ate a duck heart and choked. They're not very large, and there's no bones. But it was bigger than her throat, and she couldn't get it down, and she couldn't get it up. When I realized she was choking and unable to breathe, I nearly had a heart attack. Honestly, it was the scariest event of my life. I hadn't read about kitty heimlich, but my instincts were good, and I got it out. There certainly wasn't enough time to look it up on the internet then. My heart races just thinking about that....

Ming Loy got a piece of bone caught in her mouth once. That was tough, because she's got cerbellar hypoplasia, and is spastic to begin with. I couldn't get at it, and ended up taking her to the vet. But she was trying to paw at her mouth over and over again, shaking her head, and it was not fun to watch, especially as shes' so uncoordinated, and would fall over trying to paw at her mouth.

And yet I still feed them a bone-in meal, because these events are rare. I do cut hearts into halves though.

I don't have any suggestions on how to slow him down while eating when it comes to raw.

Yes, having a bone get stuck in the mouth or swallowing a piece that was too large is not uncommon. Well, that may be an overstatement. It does happen. For many, the kitty is able to hack it up. But if it's stuck... you have to do what you did. Help them get it out. Especially with chicken wings, this is rare, because the bone is inside the meat and skin, so "padded" by stuff that normally helps the bone slide down easily.

I'm so sorry that happened. And yeah, it is scary. :rub:

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[carlthecat]

That sounds so scary!

I've just started to do research into raw diets for cats. My cat Carl is 8 months and just eats dry food with wet food every other day. The benefits of raw food sound too good to be true and I still have lots of reading to do. 

How come you don't grind your raw cat food. Most of the stuff I've read was about grinding everything. I did read how giving the cat the raw meat with bone is how it was intended in nature but my cat is use to eat dry/wet food I think he wouldn't even touch a piece of meat on his plate lol. 

I might give it a try and just give him a raw drumstick and see how that goes 

 

 

[quickbeam]

Thanks for your reply, LDG. It was scary.

I've been a bit hovery this week every time he has had a bone in meal, but he seems to have got over the choking fine!

Carlthecat, I feed a frankenprey model of raw feeding which involves feeding a variety of meats over the week. You can read up about frankenprey and the other raw feeding models on the catcentric site. Good luck with your raw feeding, its definitely benefited my cats health

 

[ldg]

I'm so glad there haven't been any further incidents. Hopefully it'll stay that way! :rub:

Carlthecat, drumsticks are too large for cats. Think "mouse." The drumstick may be fun for them to pull the meat off of if they're into it - most of mine aren't, though they ate dry food with a little bit of wet for most of their lives: we transitioned to raw when the oldest (four of them) were nine.

Chicken wings are good starter bones - and even with those, the two smaller pieces of the wing, not the largest part.

There's a lot of information on both ground and raw in our resources thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources

 

[carlthecat]

Thank you guys for the information. I clearly have lots more to read about. I'm looking for a vet or specialist in my area that can really teach me about a raw diet for my cat. 

 

[sarah ann]

My cat will choke on bones as well. I use bone meal if I have him on home-made food. There is a risk with raw feeding that they will choke on bones. They can also get sharp pieces of bones stuck in their intestines which can be deadly.  This is a problem for wild cats as well, but there hasn't been any research into it (as to how often it occurs in the wild).

 I do not have a bone grinder so that is why I use bone meal.  I used to give my dogs bones, but my one dog will make his gums bleed on the bones. Doesn't matter what type of bone it is either.

Wild animals have a very rough life. There are some benefits to being on commercial food!

 

[goingpostal]

A lot of animals just have to figure it out, meat isn't like kibble so it's an adjustment.  Really depends on them, sometimes it's better to chop things up smaller and sometimes it's better to leave them larger and make them learn to chew.  My cat has never had a problem with bone in or boneless meat but one of my dogs will try to gulp down too large of chunks and throw it back up and play the whole game again.  I just chop her stuff up smaller because larger didn't help.  Giving whole chunks is better than ground if you can, less bacteria, better teeth cleaning, builds up jaw strength and gives them something to do.  I've had a ferret and a dog get bones stuck in their mouth, the dog got some rabbit bones stuck in his teeth and the ferret got a little bone caught in the top of her mouth but both easily removed.  Supervision is important.  Same dog used to choke on kibble on a weekly basis so it's not just raw.