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My 4 month kitten has a distended stomach...

post #1 of 6
9/4/11 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 
I brought Nimbus home on August 5th, 2011. He is a neutered Ragdoll born on 4/30/2011. When I brought him home he had a had a big belly. I figured it was just a Ragdoll thing since they tend to be heavier set cats. Since I've gotten him, he has had intermittent loose stool/diarrhea. At first I thought it was the can food I was feeding him that was causing it but after taking him off it, he continued to have intermittent loose stool. I work at the NC State Vet School and took Nimbus to the Wellness Center last Friday. The doctor felt his belly and said that it wasn't that he is "chunky" but that his belly is distended. Now we are looking at a number of possibilities. I'm aware of FIP and that it is fatal. I also know the difference between wet and dry FIP and that a distended belly can possibly mean wet FIP. However other than the intermittent diarrhea, Nimbus is not showing any other symptoms of FIP. He is acting completely normal. He runs around and plays. He has an excellent appetite and he drinks plenty of water. If it were effusive FIP I would think by now he would be showing more serious signs of sickness such as fever, trouble breathing, etc. since sources I've read have said that effusive FIP manifests somewhat rapidly (but then I know there are exceptions...however he has had this distended belly for at least a month now). Another possibility the doctor is thinking of is Tritrichomonas. We had a PCR test sent off and are waiting on the results. All of his symptoms fit what I've read about Tritric except the distended belly. He has intermittent diarrhea and the consistency of it is cowpie-like. The stool has a very fowl odor and he is occasionally gassy. Anyone have any experience with Tritrichomonas? Or perhaps other ideas of what could be going on?
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post #2 of 6
9/4/11 at 10:24am
This may be an obvious question given that you work at a vet school and he has been seen by a vet, but the most common cause of a distended stomach and loose stools in kittens is worms.
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post #3 of 6
9/4/11 at 10:29am
Thread Starter 
He's been checked for worms. We've done a fecal smear, flotation and saline flush (all done last Friday) and haven't been able to catch anything yet. We decided to do a PCR since Tritrich is pretty hard to catch otherwise. The doctor said coccidia and/or giardia are possibilities too but I would think they would have shown up on Friday's fecal tests.
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post #4 of 6
10/7/11 at 12:35pm
Our kitty was the same way with the playing around having a distended belly, for about a week. We came home one evening and found he was having difficulties. We took him to the Vet and was informed that along with the distended belly, his left lung had filled up with fluids. Other then the belly we had no symptoms until the night he passed on.
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post #5 of 6
10/10/11 at 2:27am
Coccidia and giardia can be really hard to detect and they can be very persistent. You have probably already been told, with coccidia the stool has a distinct smell, I want to say sickly sweet and metallic or something like that.

Also the gassiness and soft-ish stool could just be a transition for Nimbus from whatever he was eating before you adopted him, to his new food. I know you said you switched his food already, but it can take a cat a long time to stabilize on a new food.

Where did you get Nimbus? I would go back to the breeder or adoption center and ask them if any of his littermates presented with any illness. I would tell them it is not a question of wanting your money back, but you are just concerned because of his distended belly and if they have any information it would help you to treat Nimbus more rapidly.

If you have had him a month and he has worms, you would begin to see them in his stool, just my opinion. If your cat were at a shelter they would give him another course of worm medicine just in case. But since there is a possibility of FIP, I don't think I would subject him to that.

I don't know, but if it were me I would take a look at what you are feeding him and try something like Natural Balance wet food turkey, i.e. a high quality food that should be easy on his stomach but not an over-the-top designer food.

If he has FIP, he will at some point begin to feel clammy to the touch, i.e. warm and moist, and he will be listless. I don't think he has FIP. Please keep us posted though. I will pray it is not FIP and I will be interested to know if you do get a diagnosis, what it is.
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post #6 of 6
10/12/11 at 4:08pm
Did you end up getting this all taken care of? Was it worms like everyone suggested?
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