Cat with swollen abdomen

Originally Posted by msfitz

I am desperately in need of help. I have 2 cats, both rescues, but I am a dog person, and know little about cats. Tabby moved into our garage and into our home over a year ago. She is healthy and beautiful. We fed her, got her shots, and everything just fell into place with her.

On Mother's Day I found a calico that appears to be younger than a year old. I found her in SuperPetz. Callie is what we named her. From what we know of her, she was in the ASPCA for "a long time". She appears to have been caged long enough for her hinde legs to atrophy, so she is unable to walk on her back paws right now, and instead walks on her back legs. She supposedly had a vet check up through the ASPCA and did get her shots, the vet check lists her as healthy.

Now the problem, Callie's abdomen has always been hard and round. Her nipples are visible versus Tabby's nipples which are not, so she could have had a litter at one time. But after a month of having Callie home with us there has been no change in her abdomen. It is swollen and hard, she is clearly not pregnant, what her abdomen looks like is that it is round like a ball, and hard to the touch. She still moves around and acts like a kitten, but is not as active.

I know many will recommend the vet, and I am taking her into the vet to try to find out what is going on with her on payday, but I was hoping there was someone on this board that had any idea what I could be looking at? She has normal bowel movements each day, urinates normally, her appetite is really good, she eats twice a day. She loses her hair in large chunks compared to Tabby's daily shedding.

Anyone have any ideas?

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Usually, when a cat has a swollen abdomen, it is one of three things. First of all pregnancy, but you've already ruled that out!, Secondly FIP (Feline imperitinitis), but the cat would normally have more ill effects, ie off its food!, and last but not least WORMS!!!. It sounds like she's not been kept in the best of conditions in the past and if she was in a rescue centre, they may well have had fleas, which cause worms. Sometimes, the cats abdomen becomes crammed with worms metres in length! (pretty disgusting eh?), but thankfully easily treated with a worming tablet (the ones from the vets are better than the shop ones), so it looks like a trip to the vets anyhow. Good luck and hope it is something as simple as that!!
Fleur

fleur, great advice (FIP stands for Feline Infectious Peritonitis) but if you read the whole thread, you'll see the question has already been answered in quite a definite way LOL.

Hi sieras's mommy, I have a female cat that looks just like yours. She is declawed and we assumed she was spayed. We are going to take her in soon to get checked. We found her in our neiborhood. She has been throwing up alot and we think spraying all the kids bedrooms. We also have a boy orange tabby who is fixed. We are not possitive which cat is spraying the rooms. The girl princess has been hiding alot and seems like she has a swollen belly she is about 2 years old. They both always want to eat. What kind of cat is she? A Tabby? Do you think she could be pregnant. We dont' feel a scar and her nipples are pink and slightly pointed but we still have to search her fur to find them. Do you think she is sick?

Hi sieras's mommy, I have a female cat that looks just like yours. She is declawed and we assumed she was spayed. We are going to take her in soon to get checked. We found her in our neiborhood. She has been throwing up alot and we think spraying all the kids bedrooms. We also have a boy orange tabby who is fixed. We are not possitive which cat is spraying the rooms. The girl princess has been hiding alot and seems like she has a swollen belly she is about 2 years old. They both always want to eat. What kind of cat is she? A Tabby? Do you think she could be pregnant. We dont' feel a scar and her nipples are pink and slightly pointed but we still have to search her fur to find them. Do you think she is sick?

Zoey, as I was saying to fleur, Callie was indeed pregnant and had kittens. As your cat has been vomiting a lot, is possibly spraying and has a swollen abdomen, she is ill and you should take her to a vet as soon as possible. She may have a big worm infestation or may be pregnant.

I tried to post pics of Callie and her babies but can't get them to cut/paste. How do you do that? I have to say I am relieved that Callie's swollen abdomen was just a pregnancy. I talked to the ASPCA the day after she gave birth and they said that she had been a stray, feral caught behind a store that backed to woods on 4/1. Basically, I don't know the short life Callie has had, but she is still skittish around humans, my husband and I are the only exception, and even with the increase in mobility she has had since coming to us on Mother's Day she still has to drag her back end along with her.

Her babies have all survived! I couldn't have handled a death. The runt is the male, and he is the one my hubby wants to keep, because he is the curious/social one, the two girls are the larger of the three by far, the largest is a girl that is white with black spots, and then her sister has the calico coloring of her mother black/red/white.

Now that the 3 little ones are mobile and have their eyes open I would love to post more pics of my surprise adoption, so if anyone can tell me how to do this that would be most appreciated.


Zoey, I really hope your cat is going to be okay. Get her to the vet as soon as you can. There are vets that can give a discount on price or will just to help you out. Our vet has been that way with Callie and her kittens. Sometimes you just get lucky. If the meds through the vet are expensive going to PetMedExpress online can give you some financial relief. Just provide the vet name and contact info and then you can order the meds through them. We get all of our vaccines except the rabies through them because we pay $5 per pet for the full series compared to the hike of the vets.

I am so glad that you rescued a cat from the street. It seems that for people cats are so easy to abandon, and you have given one of too many a home. Everywhere I have lived I have seen cats trying to survive after their family just moved away and left them. That is what happened to Tabitha our first cat. Her owners sold their house, put her outside one day, and moved away without her. She was more persistent in finding a new family than some I think, because she moved into our garage and to this day we have no idea how long she had been there before my daughters found her and snuck her into the house.

If you e-mail the pics to me at [email protected] I will post them for you. You have to have been a member for a cetain amount of time and made a certain number of posts to be able to post pictures.

And here they are!

Callie


Black and white female


Black and white male


Almost a Callie lookalike


All 3 kittens




Not sure why the camera thought it was 1/1/2000 LOL.

Thank you for posting the pics of Callie and her babies for me : ). I am too lazy to change the date on the camera, so every picture for the last 2 years has said Jan 1 2000 on it.

No worries.

I fed stray cats and I have the same issue with one of the cats.  I did think it was worms also.  This one cat is in a field across from my business.  I have been feeding her and three other cats for three years now.  I know she is fixed because she didn't have any litters.  This cat has been through so much, she has been hurt by other wild animals but has managed to survive for so long now.  I will get some tablets for her tomorrow and hopefully that will work.  There is another person who started feeding her and gives her wet food which attracts flies.  I throw away the wet food away because by the end of the day, it has so many fly eggs that have hatched.