Emergency! 40 day old kitten with squishy tummy...

Hey everyone,
Im kind of freaking out because my kittens tummy feels squishy. I dont know if this is suppose to be normal. He did eat about an hour ago(his tummy is also gurgurling(sp??) A lot. He peed a little bit already too. Ive never experienced a squishy belly like this...help please.

Im not sure what you mean.  Is the belly feeling sticky?  does it smells anything?

He can have peed on himself, or even have runny poo - you should notice it by the smell if nothing else.

One question is is appropriate, has he been dewormed?

Kittens should be dewormed, especially if they arent from well dewormed, pure inside cats,

Come back and give us extra info!

Good luck!

Hi,
His belly feels like its full of water. Its soft and squishy when i press on it gently...should it be firm? I had bim dewormed last week. So i doubt hed have worms. I got his mother dewormed too since he likes to suckle and play with her still. It could be because he had eaten recently but it worried me. Im extra paranoid with him since all his litter mates passed away. Vet suspected parvo got them but he tested negative for it. So ive turned into a worry wart foster mom.

You DO have contact with a vet?   The best would be to phone the vet and ask, and go on from there.

The vet knows what follow up questions to ask.

There are several conditions when they can have belly full with free fluid "water". (even more conditions than humans).  None of these conditions are something good...

Does he seem fine otherwise?   Playing, running, curious, and sleeping in between?

No visible fever,  normal poo and pee?

If so, its hopefully nothing bad, but if not...

Good luck!

I have never seen him poop i wonder if that could be the problem. His mok stimulates him still but hes starting to pee on his own. Otherwise he plays climbs jumps sleeps and eats all just fine he has lots of energy. I think ill do as you say and phone the vet. Thank you!!

One thing i do notice is that his tongue does seem pale sometimes. Its not a bright pink but dull pink sometimes.

Mom washing and stimulating does eats the poo, so most cat owners dont never see poo on their small kittens, or just accidentally.  .  Rescuers of orphans do, obviously.

Mom is continuing with this as long as he just nurses from her.  When he begins to eats solids, the poo changes consistence, and mom usually stops with being this thorougful, is just washing. 

Time to give him his own litter - be sure it is a non clumping one.

If he is lively curious etc like any healthy kitten, it shouldnt be too bad.  But if it is fluids in the tummy for real, it is surely a vet errand.

Good you are going to contact your vet!

Good luck!

How long ago did his sibs pass away? How many were there?

Okay well he did poop just now; i had to bring him to my cousins. So im glad to see his poop! Lol it was solid and then diarrhea. Probably from the formula.
Catwoman: 7 kittens in the litter so he had 6 sibs and they died about 2 weeks ago. It was very upsetting. Some of them i didnt even think were sick. But i woke up one morning with them gone and my little survior all by himself. Im just glad i have him still. So i worry now that he will just leave me like his sibs. :/

Id have to wait till monday to take him into the vets. Im a college student supporting myself so i am low on funds at the moment. =_=. Being a cat mom is hard work.

I also realized that his tummy is red his skin and on his arm. What could that be from?

Superkitten said:

I also realized that his tummy is red his skin and on his arm. What could that be from?

Click to expand...

 infection?  or skin is irritated due to swelling? 

 one thing the fluid in him could be from is related to a heart problem.

 Has he seemed to have any difficulty breathing? 

 After he pooped ( solid then diarrhea)   does he still seem to have as much fluid in his tummy?    I was wondering if it might be intestinal & maybe he was blocked up with fluid trapped up higher.

Re  deworming,  it often takes more than once . 

You mentioned that some of the littermates , you did not know they were ill.  Did the other ones have symptoms? 

I totally understand why the vet would suspect Panleuk. when 6 kittens suddenly die.     Do you know what exact test  the vet ran?   You said parvo,  so I am wondering if he did the dog parvo test on a stool sample.  That will identify most cases of Panleukopenia  ( aka "feline infectious enteritis"  aka "feline distemper" aka "feline parvo")  which is in the same family of viruses as the canine parvo  but it can miss some cases . 

Did you have a CBC  ( complete blood count) done?    Anything abnormal?

 I do know someone who had a litter of foster kittens who all got sick &  I think it was panleukopenia ( distemper) ;  all died except one girl,  but that kitten ended up having a heart problem.  She had to have some fluid removed from her chest.   and she has to take regular meds.  But she has done better than expected and she is now about 2 years old.

We are all hoping this is not  FIP.  FIP is not always easy to diagnose.    If you have a cat specialist vet,  that would be good

I would get this little guy to a vet Monday

His tummy doesnt seem to have as much of the fluid feel today. Its firm. Idk if he had to much water or something. I did ask this vet in the emergency hospital if his squishy stomach meant anything. She said it was fine. I am not sure what other test they ran on him. Maybe the formula gives him bloat and stuff? I gave him shredded chicken yesterday and he seems so much netter today.

The breathing thing; he does snore occasionally in his sleep. Not all the time though.

He has an appointment next week. Ill make sure he is tested for FIP.

 That is positive to hear that it went down.   I do wonder if he may have been partially blocked.   Sometimes kittens do have digestive problems when they first start to eat.

There is no simple diagnostic test for FIP.    Don't  get scared by a positive test result for feline corona virus .   Unfortunately some labs have labeled the Feline Coronavirus test  as an "FIP test" ,  but it is NOT the same thing.    Feline coronavirus is very common and many many cats have been exposed to it and would show that in a test.   It is only in a small percent of cases that it mutates within the cat's body into the deadly FIP form.     The test can't tell the difference between the different versions of the virus.   and should never be used on its own to diagnose FIP.  

  If the cat has a very high coronavirus titer in combination with other things like accumulation of fluid in the abdomen that they draw off and examine and it is consistent with FIP,   plus other things are consistent.,  then it might make sense to make that diagnosis.    

I just don't want you to get worried about that unnecessarily. 

 Here  are a couple articles that tell more about it. http://www.vet.cornell.edu/FHC/health_resources/brochure_ftp.cfm

http://www.icatcare.org/advice/cat-health/feline-infectious-peritonitis-fip

I'm a little bit 'iffy' on giving advice for this one.

While it's suspect that the other 6 did infact die from panleukopenia (feline distemper aka parvo in puppies) as their age was in line as appropriate, it could also have been due to having 7 kittens, as I have seen litters where several/most of them did pass, simply due to smaller size, failing to thrive, where the smallest ones or less aggressive nursing kittens were continuously bumped off a nipple, which shows weeks later the kitten simply goes downhill and can't survive.

Basically there are 4 main milk producing nipples despite what it appearing there are plenty to go around, the top ones do produce but not even close to the lower 4, and within the first 10 days, kittens will have found their favorite nursing spots and push the others away from it. Which eventually causes the less aggressive eaters/weaker ones to be defeated.

However, 6 out of 7 doesn't normally happen in that case either.

I did have one cat who I pulled off the wagon while waiting her turn to be euthanized at the shelter, she delivered 7 kids the next day. We lost 6 of the 7 within 2 weeks despite supplemental feedings and all. (which I had a very tough time with since I am very experienced and have saved countless newborns) but they were small, like little mice.

Yours, while there being 7 tells me they were indeed at least a bit smaller, all died overnight??...you mentioned some you didnt know were even sick, what did you see before they died? Symptoms of any type?

In panleuk you surely would see this happen quite suddenly, but at least have seen something, vomiting a yellowish colored liquid, diarrhea, lethargy, etc.

Can you tell me about mom? Is she inside only, or is she able to go outside sometimes?

She would have had to go outside and bring back the virus on her......where she is immune to it but they are not due to their immature immune systems.

The chance of it being fip is quite low simply due to their age of passing. That is just too young to have contracted the coronavirus and it mutating in all of them into fip? and all passing at once? Not going to happen like that.

Also strange that if they did pass from panleuk, how would the one kitten NOT get sick? This wipes out entire litters at that age.

Big sigh.......

Okay so it would also be quite young for the survivor to have fip as well, and it would be the wet form because of the tummy fluid feeling. While uncommon for a 6 wk old to get fip, it's not out of the question either.

You said pale tongue, raise the top lip of the kitten away and check the gum color. Is it more white-ish than pink? The color should be like pale pink, not white.

Are there fleas at all? Not explaining anything other than in addition to anything else he may have some anemia common in small kittens with fleas. They have such a small blood supply the fleas can literally take enough of the blood away causing anemia.

Need detailed info about what you saw the day prior to the other kids dying.

Catwoman: wow tons of questions of information for me so let me start out by thanking you! I feel a lot less stress being able to talk with people about him. Alright lets answer some questions now!

Okay yes very suddenly they all got diarrhea it was a yellowish color at first. I cleaned them up very good and got them pedilyte. The diarrhea seemed to go away. Came back two days later and was a forest green color. Very liquidy. I recognize one them had a swollen eye so i said od take her to the vet in the morning. Her eye wasnt very bad just a little closed. I washed it out gently with a warm cloth and water so i thought maybe poop mightve gotten in but then 4 hours later when i woke up they were all gone.

Mama cat was a feral that my husband found. So we took her in. She is a wonderful cat. So it is quite possible poor mom couldve given them something. The cat i have now was always the biggest one. He was under weight. So i nursed him back to health. He seems a lot better today. I wonder if was the water at my cousins water that affected him. It was in a different city and i usually give him pedilyte not water. =_=

He got a test for feline parvo and it came back negative but idk if she checked him for anything else!

On a happier note he used his litter box for the first time today!! And his true eye color is coming in. He will have green eyes. =D

So if he was underweight yet the biggest, that might explain things a bit, however for all of them to die overnight is still very strange......

You found no small amts of yellowish vomit? It wouldn't be alot, since they were so small, but here and there somewhere they were around would likely have a small dried up spot even.

With panleuk it's the vomiting and diarrhea that causes fast dehydration and death, although other things are being attacked inside, but these 2 things are in the later stages of panleuk.

Was the diarrhea the only symptom? Because that could have been from a parasite, also common among feral-born kids.

Well, you said he seems alot better today, for panleuk that will not be the case.

I do think he is likely too young for it to be FIP, so let's hope he will get better!

Yeah i suspected parasites. So i dewormed him. Right after they passed and thats when he strength came back. That and he got 2 huge injections from the vet. It was electrolytes. Also i see that once i took him off the formula he has even more energy now. He doesnt like drinking or pedilyte though. =_= he hates fluids with out flavor. Is there anyway i can add some flavor to them? Oh and is it okay to feed him tuna everyday? Im trying to find the best diet for this guy.

I caught him just now eating moms kibbles. Lol thats a first. =) although id prefer to give him a raw diet. I give her kibbles as a snack.

*drinking water or pedilyte.

It's not a good idea to feed tuna every day to a cat anymore than to a human child, due to the risk of contamination with mercury. Also feeding a lot of fish can be hard on the urinary tract and kidneys because of high mineral levels . & some cats actually get addicted to tuna , to the point they don't want anything else! But a small amount the water from water-packed tuna, added to water, might get him to drink it more. and that shouldn't be harmful. but for actually feeding tuna , I would save that for a treat no more than once every couple weeks.