Kitten w/ sudden swollen abdomen

8-10 week old female kitten has swollen abdomen, which is significantly tighter on the left side, extending from about the second rib from the bottom to 2 inches from back legs. She sometimes finds the left side to be tender to touch.

She happened upon my doorstep about 5 days ago at midnight, starving, dirty, and flea ridden, with a crusty and closed right eye, and very lethargic. Fed her a small amount of moistened regular cat food (as it was all I had available at the time), and let her drink her fill of water. Closed her up in a spare bathroom to separate from my 2 adult cats.

Since then I've fed her small amounts of moistened kitten chow and the occasional tuna in water, and made water readily available. She went from having diarrhea, to constipation, to having normal stools now for the last day or so. The problem eye is now at least half open all the time (unless she's sleeping), she can now open it all the way, no longer has goop around it, shows no discoloration and appears to have proper iris function. Has become very active in the last day or so, occasionally running and jumping while playing.

To get the point, the abdomen has started to appear larger than I would expect it to (for a recently stuffed kitten) in the last 24 hours. As I said, the left side seems to be tighter and more tender than the right, but the size distribution is roughly the same. I can't recall ever seeing her urinate, though the kitty litter she is using does not clump very well, so I suspect and UTI or blockage of some sort.

I've haven't taken her to the vet yet as I'm just holding on to it until I can find a humane shelter for it or someone to take it... as taking it to the local county animal shelter is death sentence... but no luck as of yet.

So any thoughts? Sorry it's long-winded but I don't want to leave anything out. Thank you in advance =)
-Jake

i think the vest thing to do is to speak to a vet and get her in im sorry i am no more help

She really needs to see a vet. There's obviously something wrong and with the tenderness on the one side, there's no telling what it could be. Please get this little kitten to a vet or an ER vet ASAP.

Has she pooped at all in the last few hours? I wonder if all that moistened dry food could be binding her up somehow or if parasites have.

A vet, ASAP, is really all you can do.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

Has she pooped at all in the last few hours? I wonder if all that moistened dry food could be binding her up somehow or if parasites have.

A vet, ASAP, is really all you can do.

Click to expand...

Yup and twice today in total I believe. There's no where I can take her even remotely close by until Monday Not even emergency clinics are open on the weekend here. Of course I will first thing Monday though, if she makes it that long. Other than the tenderness she shows no signs of any discomfort or pain (yet), from what I can see, so I'm hopin'.

Thanks for the input so far.

Depending on your regular vet, you can sometimes call them on the weekend if it's bad enough. Mine does charge for ER visit though he doesn't have an ER "clinic", he's also a large animal vet so he has to be available for those emergencies. You should check what the ones in your area are willing to do.

I realize this thread was start almost 8 years ago but I'm really curious to hear what the vet said. Midnight is about 10 weeks and I just noticed today that one side (left) of his stomach is swollen. He doesn't seem to be in any pains but I'm worried.