Hi! I have a one and a half year old Maine Coon cat named Quincy. He is loving and adorable, but very mischievious. He has broke his heel bone and his leg bone on separate incidents just from a fall in the house. He is an inside cat and I have tried to keep him more confined because of these incidents. I'm curious, does anyone else every have problems like this with their Maine Coon's? Is this common in the breed? My vet has never seen anything like it in a cat.

Thanks!

Jennifer

-- Anonymous, August 25, 1999

Answers

Hi Jennifer,

In my experience (12 years of owning and breeding Maines), I have had only one cat with a broken bone: a six-week-old kitten who broke her tibia after falling off a tall cat tree. (And my cats get pretty wild sometimes -- they sound like a herd of stampeding elephants at times.)

I have also not heard of anyone else (my pet buyers or my breeder friends) having problems with fragile/broken bones in their Maine Coons. In fact, much the opposite -- my experience is that generally Maine Coons are pretty sturdy cats.

I think there are some nutritional and metabolic disorders that can cause fragile or brittle bones. Did your vet consider and/or rule out such problems?

Best regards, Betsy

-- Anonymous, September 17, 1999