Stan's not pooping?

We've had Stan for just over a month now and I realized the other day while cleaning out his litter box that he hasn't pooped in awhile. He may have actually pooped and the dogs ate it before I could clean it out, but I'm not positive so I thought I'd ask before I get all freaked out and take him to the vet. That being said, I am planning on bringing him to the vet this coming week for a general checkup (I get paid on the weekend).

He doesn't seem to have much of an appetite either, he is eating, just not a lot. I may also be used to cats (and dogs) that tend to gorge themselves. He will not eat dry food, but he is eating a bit of soft food. He is also drinking fine and is not dehyrated. He has seemed to have lost weight, his ribs have fat covering them and are easily felt, but he seems to have a bit of a pot belly. I just wormed him today, incase that's the problem.

Anyone have any ideas for when we go see the vet on Monday?

He IS eating, just not as much as I would expect. He is also not free fed and his food is measured, because we have two dogs that would love to eat his food any chance they got. He is fed around noon - about 1/4 can of wet food and then again around 5-6 (depending on my work schedule), the same amount. He also has about 1/4 cup of dry food that we put out at night when we go to bed. He has been eating about half of the wet food but doesn't seem to be touching the dry, he has never really eaten dry food here but it's what he was on at the shelter. We do not know what he was being fed before at the shelter, they didn't tell us and when we asked the people at Petsmart they didn't know, so I'm assuming his food was whatever they had been given through donations. The people that work with the shelter would come in and feed them, play with them and what not twice a day.

He went into the vet right after we got him, everything checked out fine.

He is about 8 years old. He isn't in any pain and is acting the same as he always has, he mostly lays around in his beds all day, will play with toys if we play with him, does most of his roaming around at night.

Nope, no chance he's eating the dogs food... unless he's jumping up and opening up bags, lol. He also doesn't go outside, we live in an apartment so he'd have to slip out the door without us noticing, then get through two more sets of doors and then slip back in through three doors. We are always checking to make sure that everyone is in when we go out, the dogs are small as well (dachshunds). They're also crated when we're not home, so Stan has free roam of the apartment.

We only have records of when his shots and wormings were done, nothing else.

Could it be that he doesn't like his litter and he's holding it in? We recently switched from the regular litter to a pine one that's flushable (because it's much easier for us to clean his box that way). I'll switch his litter tonight and see if he poops.

We just offered him some tuna and it's juice, he loved the juice but didn't eat much of the tuna. Again, that's not really unusual for him - he's never seemed to want any when we offered it to him, just the juice.

He will pee in it, but not poop. Or he's pooping and we're missing it because the dogs are getting to it first - but in that case he'd have to be pooping during the day... I clean his box out first thing in the morning when I go to the bathroom and then smooth it all out so that I know when he goes. I'm pretty sure it's been undisturbed throughout the day, unless someone else is cleaning it out which I highly doubt - roommate is hardly ever home and boyfriend wouldn't touch it.

Answered here:

Update: Just changed his litter back to the other kind and put him in it, he peed right away. No poop yet, but hopefully tonight.

Another update: I just tried heating his food up in the microwave (actually a mixture of his wet food and some tuna that we had tried to give him earlier). He's eating it right now like a champ. He loves it. So I think we have the food problem figured out, so hopefully the poop will follow

Still taking him to the vet on Monday for a general check up.

We had gotten a bunch of dry food samples when we first got him, the only one he would eat was Oven Baked, so we have a small bag of that here for him. It's resealable and we keep it in the freezer with the large bag of dog food so that it will last longer. The wet food is just Friskies because it was the only wet food that he would eat out of the 4-5 different ones we got him. We would give him 1/4 of a can and once it was open keep it covered in the fridge. He ate the wet food fine up until about a week ago, the he started getting picky with it. I think he was having trouble smelling it because once I heated it up and it was all stinky he ate it fine. Same with the tuna.

He hadn't pooped this morning yet, but he is looking a bit happier. Like I said, he will go to the vet on Monday.

I was just trying to get him to eat something yesterday so I put tuna in with his food, he ate it and the wet food once it was heated.

He won't touch any of those brands, I bought the Orijen sample and Global gave me samples of the other ones. The Oven Baked is fish flavoured.

I was at Global two days ago to get dog food and didn't notice it there, we're in Canada so it will probably be a bit longer before it comes here.

We are warming his food now when we take it out of the fridge/freezer. He seems to be eating it fine now, more so then he was when it was cold.

I can't remember if we had a sample of Nutro or not, I know there was a TOTW (green), Orijen, Over Baked, Merrik and something else.

No one is going to be home most of the day - I have to go to work in an hour and a half and my boyfriend is going out in a few minutes until when I come home from work at 11:30pm, so Stan will have the place to himself and there will be no chance of woofers nipping up the poop before I see it if he does go. He's sitting in pounce position right now looking at my knitting basket - I have no idea what he's going after, lol.

I cannot confirm for sure that he has not gone, the only place that we can put his litter box is where the dogs can also get to it.

We cannot afford an emergency vet visit - we just had to take one of the dogs in and it was nearly $500, our rent is due today and I'm the only one working right now (my boyfriend recently lost his job). It is going to be financially stressful on us to take him to the vet on Monday, but we are going to because he needs to. We cannot take him in before then because the one we use is not open on the weekend and I have to work today. At the emergency clinic it's about $100 just to get them seen, plus everything else on top of that. This isn't just about money either, our emergency clinic here is not a good one - I have heard of more pets dying there from misdiagnosis than them helping. They also nearly killed one of my dogs and one of my friends dogs.

My boyfriend can't drive, so he wouldn't have been able to take him anyways. I also don't know of any vets around here that take cheques at all, very few do payment plans either (for larger things).

I was talking to a girl at work today about it and she suggested that I go to her vet, it's in the country so they tend to be open on weekends unlike city vets. I was also looking for a new vet anyways for the dogs, she highly recommends them and it's much cheaper than my regular vet. She said an office visit there is $49 + whatever you need, whereas at my current vet it's $69 +. I called them while I was at work and they said that we could come in at 9:45 tomorrow morning, so we're going to bring him in on our way to my parents place. Here's hoping that they do tattooing as well (I'm also having troubles finding a vet that does that, everyone except Stan is microchipped but I also want everyone's thigh tattooed). I've had a hard time finding that too, but more so because I've only asked city vets, I asked a friend of mine that has her dogs tattooed and she said to ask around at country vets because they routinely do horses.

So we'll know for sure what's going on tomorrow morning, then Stan will get to hang out at my parents house with us.

First I want to say thank you to everyone on here that has offered advice to us with this. I would like to say that money isn't a problem, but in reality for us right now it is. We are doing everything that we are able to with Stan to ensure his quality of life, however, we also need to keep a roof over our heads and make sure our other pets can receive care as well. So I feel that ultimately, it will become a deciding factor in what we end up doing.

Things are not looking good for Stan. She checked his mouth and he has a couple of really bad teeth, back left hand side, one on top, one on bottom. Eventually, they will need to be extracted. So that explains why he wasn't eating, and in turn why he wasn't pooping. Like I said before - nothing going in, nothing coming out. She didn't feel that he was constipated, just that he wasn't eating enough to produce waste. She suggested for now that we water down his wet food so that he can basically drink his food. She also gave me liquid clavamox to help with the teeth for now, this way I won't have to pill him and she said that the injectable one isn't very effective for teeth. I don't think it will be a problem.

If only his teeth were the problem, but they aren't. When she palpitated his abdomen she felt fluid. This was the same problem that we had been told by another vet was worms (pot belly appearance). She said that we could do an xray or she could try to get a sample directly. I allowed her to get the sample, she said he was wonderful for it. She got two little viles of fluid, one they were going to test to make sure it wasn't urine, the other they are going to send out to confirm what she suspects. She thinks that he has feline infectious peritonitis, it has already progressed into the wet form which also progresses more quickly than the dry form. She also thinks that the stress from moving here with the dogs made it progress more quickly, although with his interaction with the dogs today while we were at the vet she thinks that he is fine with them now, and since they leave him alone at home that we don't need to separate them. In all likelihood he will not live long enough to get the infection in his mouth under control enough to have the dental done, and even if he did, the stress of the dental would probably kill him. When my boyfriend was out having a smoke with the dogs, she said that if it is this, as she suspects is it, that he will have anywhere from a few months to a year to live but also suspects is will be closer to the few months. I did ask her to be brutally honest with me with all possibilities, so she wasn't just jumping to conclusions.

I have called the store where the adoption center is to let them know that he may have this, unfortunately the actual agency is closed now for the evening and we won't be able to get in touch with them until Monday. I also have to call the vet again on Monday to see what the results are of the additional testing we did are.

The vet was absolutely wonderful and I believe that we will be taking all of our pets there from now on - very nice staff and great prices as well. Today's visit was $155, he received a thorough exam, had some fluid removed from his abdomen and his medication for his nasty teeth. At the vet that we had been using, this would have cost us at least $400 and most likely more than that.

The test on the yellow/tan liquid from his abdomen checks for protein levels or something, that indicate FIP. It is one of the most useful tests in diagnosing, from what I've been told and have read.

His teeth cannot be done until he has been on antibiotics for them, and until we know for sure what we're dealing with with the fluid. She said that all signs right now are pointing to FIP.

She also gave that timeline when I asked how long she thought he may have, it was based on cases that she had seen and consulted on and the stage that she believes the disease could be at at this point. She said it may be less time, it could be more.

He is eating fine now when we water his food down and heat it up.

Edited to add: She said that there is no treatment for the disease, only for the symptoms and to make him comfortable. Once it is confirmed for sure, we can drain his abdomen and keep him on medication.

Here are some pictures of my furry little boy: