What's the best thing to feed kitten with broken bone?

One of the strays I care for, Lizzie, has been limping quite badly for a couple of days so I took her to the vet. X-rays showed she has a broken pelvis. It's a clean, hairline fracture. The vet says that as she is a kitten, she is 6 months old, it will heal naturally so didn't do anything except for give her worm and flea medication.

I'm keeping her in a large sunny room with her bed on the floor and I've built her a little step up into her litter box. She seems quite happy in there, she can see her hell-raising brother and sister through the window.

What's the best thing to feed her to encourage her bones to heal quickly? I've been giving her boiled chicken, which she loves. She doesn't like fish or any of the fish flavoured cat foods.

Thanks for any advice.

I'm sorry your cat has a broken pelvis.  I would think that would be painful--is she on any medications?

The best food to feed any injured cat is one that is nutritionally complete.  A boiled chicken only diet is lacking in nutrition:  is that all you are feeding her?  If so, please feed her a nutritionally complete cat food.  One that is high in protein, low in carbohydrates.  I see you live in Japan:  what canned foods are available to you?

Also, I believe her calorie requiremenst may be slightly higher; she may be burning extra calories in the healing process.  Watch her weight, if she starts loosing, feed her a higher calorie food or supplement with some extra fat (like raw chicken with some fat on it).

Also, Glucosamine might be helpful--or at least it won't hurt.  Living in Japan, do you have access to it?

Hi Ritz,

The vet said that if he gave her pain medication she might forget that she was injured and start jumping around and doing herself more damage. He suggested keeping her separate from her brothers and sisters while she heals so they don't unintentionally harm her, which is why she is in a different room. They usually all come indoors to be fed and play for about an hour or so, then go back outside with the rest of the colony. She's taken to being indoors much better than I thought she would.

I've been feeding her cans of Mon Petit, the roast chicken and roast beef flavour ones, for one meal a day and boiled chicken for the other. She has access to dry food the rest of the time.

I've seen glucosamine tablets and powders for humans, would that be suitable for cats?

Glucosamine is for joint issues. When I broke both bones in my ankle my daughter, a nutritionist, recommended that I take large doses of vitamin D. I do know that the bones healed more rapidly than the orthopedist thought they would. Perhaps ask your veterinarian what the appropriate dose for a kitten would be.

Glad to hear that the kitten (does she have a name?) is happy and calm in her "recovery room."

She needs balanced nutrition to properly heal, check out the raw and home-cooked forum stickies for recipes to balance the meat.

Her recovery room sounds awesome!

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, she has a name. I call her Lizzie. 

I checked out some of the raw food threads, I think it might be difficult to get hold of the ingredients.  I can get very small, very expensive packs of beef or pork, chicken, pretty much any kind of fish (which she won't eat) but not things like rabbit or venison. Japanese people don't eat a lot of meat, it seems and I've been vegetarian pretty much my whole life so I'm totally clueless. She really likes the chicken though, I've been using the water I cook it in to make her chicken broth and she always cleans her bowl.

Egg yolks are a good source of vitamin D, is that right? I'm going to try her with some eggs tomorrow, people here eat eggs raw all the time so they should be safe for her. Are raw eggs best?

She seems to be making a good recovery. She isn't limping so badly and was playing with some of her toys and scratching at her cat tree today. Also getting very friendly. She comes and rubs against my legs and lets me pet her a bit now.

Egg yolks are very nutritious! She needs taurine and calcium. Eggshells can provide calcium, hearts provide taurine. If you can get bone in wings that would get her calcium too. She needs liver as well, at least 5% of what she's eating. Maybe check out the frankenprey/prey model raw (PMR) info so you're not having to chase down supplements.

I'm noｔ having much luck with the liver. I've tried giving it to her raw, boiled, chopped up with the chicken and blended into the chicken broth and she won't touch it. The other five kittens I'm feeding won't eat it either. Is there any way I can make it more appetising? Maybe a whole chicken liver between six of them is too much?

She's doing really well other than that. She only injured herself 10 days ago but she's hardly limping at all now. She spent the afternoon in the garden with her sister, Freya, jumping on each other's heads. Kittens are awesome, they recover so quickly.

What about calcium? Taurine?

The raw and home-cooked forum stickies have suggestions like toppers and such. Considering the broken bone and what's available to you I'd strongly consider a commercial diet over plain chicken meat.

I just wanted to let you know that Lizzie has fully recovered now. I think I was spoiling her with the cooked chicken. She started off on a mix of canned and dried food, like all the other outdoor cats, and I was giving them bits of chicken and fish as treats to try and make them easier to handle. Then, once I realised she was injured and had to be kept indoors, I spent a lot of time petting her and feeding her treats so that she'd feel more comfortable. But you know how easy it is to spoil a cat. She soon decided that cooked chicken was ALL she could eat. I managed to wean her off that and back on to canned food by putting little bits of cooked chicken on top of the canned stuff. Now she's back on her regular diet, running around with all the others and doing just fine.



Here are a few photo's. Isn't she sweetheart? Her sister, Freya, was spayed yesterday and Lizzie is being spayed on Tuesday. I hope I can find good homes for both of them, they're really friendly,playful kittens.

This is Freya.

Aww, they're both adorable. I love Lizzie's eyes!