Hi everyone. I'm the relatively new owner of a mom and her two kittens, whom I adopted early/mid April. I posted a couple of questions back then and you guys were so helpful ... now I'm hoping to get some more advice.
Mina is about a year old, maybe a little older, and the kittens (Sophie and Therblig -- don't laugh!) are about thirteen weeks now. Anyway, what happened was, since the kittens were sick with calicivirus, I adopted Mina first and had her by herself for a week, at which time she was spayed. The kittens joined her in their new home couple of days later.
The kittens are on solid food but are STILL nursing from Mina, who makes some halfhearted efforts at kicking them away, but often just says "whatever" and lets them nurse.
Okay, that's the backstory. Now my question. Mina's always had kind of a swollen belly, which I figured was the result of her pregnancy/nursing. But ever since Mina's operation and the kittens arrived/started nursing from her again, Mina's gotten to look like a pear! If I didn't know better I'd think she was pregnant. The belly is sort of rubbery and hard, not soft like a regular cat belly.
She's acting perfectly fine -- running and playing with her kids. I hate to drag her to the vet again, but I don't want her to explode or rupture or anything. Could this be parasites? I know, you guys can't really diagnose or anything ... I just want to know if nursing mothers normally look swollen, or if this is something I should be even more worried about than I already am.
You can see Mina and an earlier version of her belly in these pictures, primarily the third and fourth shots down on the page. (She's bigger now, though.) Mina's the large orange tiger; the two kittens are Sophie (brown tiger) and Therblig (dillute orange tiger).
I'd appreciate any help you can give me -- I'm a total nervous nellie ever since my last cat died two years ago!
Mina is about a year old, maybe a little older, and the kittens (Sophie and Therblig -- don't laugh!) are about thirteen weeks now. Anyway, what happened was, since the kittens were sick with calicivirus, I adopted Mina first and had her by herself for a week, at which time she was spayed. The kittens joined her in their new home couple of days later.
The kittens are on solid food but are STILL nursing from Mina, who makes some halfhearted efforts at kicking them away, but often just says "whatever" and lets them nurse.
Okay, that's the backstory. Now my question. Mina's always had kind of a swollen belly, which I figured was the result of her pregnancy/nursing. But ever since Mina's operation and the kittens arrived/started nursing from her again, Mina's gotten to look like a pear! If I didn't know better I'd think she was pregnant. The belly is sort of rubbery and hard, not soft like a regular cat belly.
She's acting perfectly fine -- running and playing with her kids. I hate to drag her to the vet again, but I don't want her to explode or rupture or anything. Could this be parasites? I know, you guys can't really diagnose or anything ... I just want to know if nursing mothers normally look swollen, or if this is something I should be even more worried about than I already am.
You can see Mina and an earlier version of her belly in these pictures, primarily the third and fourth shots down on the page. (She's bigger now, though.) Mina's the large orange tiger; the two kittens are Sophie (brown tiger) and Therblig (dillute orange tiger).
I'd appreciate any help you can give me -- I'm a total nervous nellie ever since my last cat died two years ago!