My kitten has a pot belly appearance, how can I know if it's FIP or just weight gain?

aleyda de leon

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Hello, everyone! I'm new to this site! I came here in search for help and advice,so please tell me some of your opinions!

So three weeks ago, I brought a kitten that I found on our neighborhood home. He is around eight weeks old and a male. He seemed to be very healthy. He was very playful and loved to eat. Issues started to appear during his second week with the family. On friday night, he stopped eating and started to sleep more than usual. He also started vomiting. His vomit was like spit. On saturday he began to have diarrhea. I asked my mother to take me to the vet, but she refused. She thought it would go away. On saturday night, he vomited a worm. I told my mother that he probably had parasites so we decided to take him to the vet on monday. They told me he was going to be fine and gave him deworming medication. When we came back, he returned to normal and started eating again. However, he was always hungry. He would cry of hunger and ask me for more food. He would even go and eat my dog's food whenever he could. Thinking that it was normal considering that he hadn't eaten for two days, I gave him more than usual. One and a half can of wet food for kittens. He continued eating like that for three days. 

Then on thursday, I began to notice he had a pot belly appearance. His belly doesn't feel too soft nor too hard.  I've heard many things of FIP and I instantly freaked out. My mother, however, thinks it's just weight gain considering that he had been fed more than usual. But I can't be too sure. Other than his pot belly, he also sneezes. It's not frequent at all. It just happens once or twice a day. But I'm going to still put it as a symptom. Also, sometimes when he sleeps, he feels slightly warmer but then as soon as he wakes up, he becomes normal again. He still begs me for more food but I returned to feeding him twice daily. I even changed to dry food because I heard it contains less fat. He poops and pees regularly. He is also more playful than before. He spends more than half of the day awake and even, wakes during the night to play. He seems fairly healthy except for his pot belly. It's been three days like that. Sometimes his belly looks bigger than before and sometimes it looks smaller. 

Please tell me if you think it's FIP. If you think it isn't then, what can it be?


 

louann jude

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He is beautiful. The extreme hunger and pot belly is also a sign of worms. I had a foster that did that with tape worms. Maybe you can take him back to the vet with a fecal sample to do test. 
 
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aleyda de leon

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But they already gave him the first dose of worms medication seven days ago.. They told me to come back in two weeks for the second one and for his vaccinations..?
 

stephanietx

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Tapeworm medication is different from the general wormer.  Call the vet and ask if they gave him the general dewormer for parasites or the tapeworm dewormer or both.  Also, when you feed him, feed him wet kitten food a couple of times a day and give him dry kitten food as much as he wants.
 
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aleyda de leon

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I think they just gave him for roundworms and hook worms?? The second dose it's up to next week. 
 

talkingpeanut

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Sounds like he needs to be treated for tapeworms in addition.  Poor guy!
 
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