Hypervitaminosis A caused by liver-heavy or all-meat diets causes painful skeletal disease in cats; balanced nutrition is a fundamental but sometimes overlooked welfare intervention.
Hypervitaminosis A causes severe chronic pain that progresses over months to years before diagnosis. Cats develop an increasingly rigid neck and spine as pathological new bone forms, making normal movements agonizing. This entirely preventable condition occurs when owners feed well-intentioned but nutritionally unbalanced diets. Balanced commercial diets or properly formulated raw diets prevent this suffering completely.