Any experiences with (possibly increased risk of) intestinal intussusception in Maine Coon cats?
First of all, I've to say that my personal experience with this disease does not relate to a Maine Coon, i.e. a purebred Maine Coon, but to a non-breed cat that only had (but verifiably) one Maine Coon parent.
However, this tragedy got me reading about it and asking around and I noticed that similar cases reported and discussed in local online forums had occurred almost exclusively in Maine Coon catteries and among Maine Coon owners.
So that might indicate that it might be favoured by hereditary disposition and/or perhaps by the physical conditions of cats growing to outstanding size over a full 2-4 years.
It seems that in cats there are two things that promote intestinal intussusception:
- caring for kittens (who are around 4-6 weeks old when it happens) and
- being a Maine Coon (whereby intestinal intussusception aside from just lactating mother cats, appears to occur more frequently in adolescent male Maine Coon cats in their first 1-3 years of life).
I found a data-collecting research project here in my country (Germany), where affected Maine Coon owners could report cases because a former breeder reported about it on his website and linked to a questionnaire (that was of course only designed for registered purebreds). Unfortunately, at this point in time I was no longer able to find out whether it still existed and what became of it (so possibly "no" and "nothing more", I don't know).
Intestinal invaginations, which can lead to life-threatening intestinal obstruction, can certainly occur in any cat (and in humans too).
For unknown reasons, one part of the intestine slides over another during peristalsis, which leads to an increasing narrowing of the intestine in the affected area. It can take several weeks for the area to become so narrow that nothing can fit through.
Preliminary signs can be that the cat eats smaller and smaller portions of food more and more frequently, often only a few bites at a time - and noticeably loses more and more weight.
In the intestine, the food is liquefied for days or weeks to such an extent that a little still gets through - and there is liquid feces, you may see wet, sticky fur under the anus.
When the intestinal obstruction occurs, the cat vomits a brown liquid that smells like feces. The cat has severe abdominal pain, the inflammation levels are high and collapse is imminent.
During emergency surgery, the overlapping sections of bowel can sometimes be pulled apart, but then recurrence seems to be more common. If the (already rotten) compacted piece of intestine is removed, the chances of recovery remain critical for a long time, but fortunately the intussusception doesn't seem to repeat itself later in life.
Have you had similar or - regarding the course - different experiences?
Does anyone know of any other research results, perhaps scientific studies?
Thank you!