A skeletal growth defect in the puma (Felis concolor)

Clinical and radiological signs shown by a young deformed puma cub, and the pathological findings following its euthanasia at eight months, are presented. These findings do not resemble those in the recognised nutritional bone diseases of the growing carnivore, but closely resemble an hereditary disease of the dog and, at least in one respect, an hereditary disease in man. This case may be an example of hereditary chondrodysplastic dwarfism in the puma. An unusual finding was the presence of iron in the cartilage of abnormal growth plates.