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- Oct 9, 2018
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Hello all~ And I apologies in advance for the big wall of text you're about to see.
So our purebred Ragdoll 11 month old cat, Sora, suddenly developed a swelled abdomen a few days ago. To us, it appeared out of nowhere, possibly overnight or maybe within 2 days at most (by our estimate). The swelling is located a little higher up than most fat I've seen on overweight/obese cats. Not exactly on the chest but the mid-section and it's most noticeable on his sides, like he swallowed a ball or something and it's bulging from the sides rather than the bottom.
(Doesn't look much but it's definitely noticeable in person.)
We took him to the vet 2 days ago and according to him it's just fat. We're really hoping it's just fat because FIP would be worse.
In terms of his diet, he has been overfed for a while. 3 cans of 3 oz. cans of wet cat food daily for maybe 2 months, and 4 cans daily that lasted around 2 weeks (I know, it's bad. We were ignorant with the amount he's supposed to consume and assumed he was supposed to eat more than normal cats because of his breed being on the larger side; now we're back to feeding him only 2 cans a day and taking him on walks for exercise.) This does support the fact that Sora is just fat but it still baffled us why his fat appeared suddenly instead of gradually and that the fat is only presenting around his belly and nowhere else.
As for other signs/symptoms besides the belly swell, is lethargy. Ragdolls are already known for being more chill than other cat breeds so we can't even say if his lethargy is severe or not. Sora's already been the type to like sleeping ALL DAY (his usual routine is 2-3 days of all-day sleeping, one day of a couple hours of activeness/playfulness). This time around he still tries to play with his toys by trying to reach and grab them with his paws but he doesn't actively get up and chase it anymore. Now, we aren't sure if this lethargy is something severe or just a sign of being fat=lazy.
Another thing he's been doing that he never did is squeak when we try to pick him up. He never meowed in his entire life, only squeaks and only when he wants food or if we accidentally step on his tail or something. We aren't sure if it's due to pain from his gut being pressed but he squeaks even if we try to avoid touching his gut now too. This has been going on for a few days now, since the belly swelling started showing. We're assuming he finds it painful or, at the very least, uncomfortable for his gut area to be touched.
Other than that, he's presenting nothing else that could indicate it's FIP. No fevers, no weight loss (if anything, he's gained weight and he begs for food now because we've been cutting his portions down from what he's used to getting), no difficulty breathing...so what's really concerning us the most is the belly swell. The vet said he could take an x-ray to give us piece of mind but when he initially told us he thinks (confident, even) it's just fat because it goes along his diet and his age (puts on weight more easily now), it put us off having to pay a lot of $$ for an x-ray.
For those with experience with wet FIP, does the swelling of the abdomen happen suddenly? Or gradually? Does my cat's swollen abdomen look/sound like it could be FIP?
Any insight on this matter will be greatly appreciated!
____
A little backstory about Sora:
Last year around October (at around 6 months), he got his poop tested and his blood drawn and tested. We took him to the vet at the time because he was presenting problems from a runny nose, drooling, and even neurological signs (he kept walking in circles and looked as if he couldn't see; this particular symptom only lasted a few minutes though). This lasted for only half a day which was when we left Sora home alone. Later that night, after giving him a lot of attention, he was completely fine. (So my husband and I assumed he has separation anxiety or something.) Tests were also completely normal and this incident never happened again.
I'm only mentioning this because I'm wondering if, during the blood draw and the tests they did, could they have tested for feline coronavirus at the time? They said they tested his blood for "everything" and everything came back normal. So would this mean he didn't have coronavirus and therefore not possibly have FIP now? (Also for reference, he's the only cat in our house. There are 2 dogs though, but Sora's the only cat and he's strictly indoor until 2 days ago after the vet visit when we started taking him on walks just around our neighborhood but he's had no contact with other cats since the day we got him at the pet shop when he was a month-ish old and when he was 5 months old when we put him in a boarding place while we were out of town for a week).
So our purebred Ragdoll 11 month old cat, Sora, suddenly developed a swelled abdomen a few days ago. To us, it appeared out of nowhere, possibly overnight or maybe within 2 days at most (by our estimate). The swelling is located a little higher up than most fat I've seen on overweight/obese cats. Not exactly on the chest but the mid-section and it's most noticeable on his sides, like he swallowed a ball or something and it's bulging from the sides rather than the bottom.
(Doesn't look much but it's definitely noticeable in person.)
We took him to the vet 2 days ago and according to him it's just fat. We're really hoping it's just fat because FIP would be worse.
In terms of his diet, he has been overfed for a while. 3 cans of 3 oz. cans of wet cat food daily for maybe 2 months, and 4 cans daily that lasted around 2 weeks (I know, it's bad. We were ignorant with the amount he's supposed to consume and assumed he was supposed to eat more than normal cats because of his breed being on the larger side; now we're back to feeding him only 2 cans a day and taking him on walks for exercise.) This does support the fact that Sora is just fat but it still baffled us why his fat appeared suddenly instead of gradually and that the fat is only presenting around his belly and nowhere else.
As for other signs/symptoms besides the belly swell, is lethargy. Ragdolls are already known for being more chill than other cat breeds so we can't even say if his lethargy is severe or not. Sora's already been the type to like sleeping ALL DAY (his usual routine is 2-3 days of all-day sleeping, one day of a couple hours of activeness/playfulness). This time around he still tries to play with his toys by trying to reach and grab them with his paws but he doesn't actively get up and chase it anymore. Now, we aren't sure if this lethargy is something severe or just a sign of being fat=lazy.
Another thing he's been doing that he never did is squeak when we try to pick him up. He never meowed in his entire life, only squeaks and only when he wants food or if we accidentally step on his tail or something. We aren't sure if it's due to pain from his gut being pressed but he squeaks even if we try to avoid touching his gut now too. This has been going on for a few days now, since the belly swelling started showing. We're assuming he finds it painful or, at the very least, uncomfortable for his gut area to be touched.
Other than that, he's presenting nothing else that could indicate it's FIP. No fevers, no weight loss (if anything, he's gained weight and he begs for food now because we've been cutting his portions down from what he's used to getting), no difficulty breathing...so what's really concerning us the most is the belly swell. The vet said he could take an x-ray to give us piece of mind but when he initially told us he thinks (confident, even) it's just fat because it goes along his diet and his age (puts on weight more easily now), it put us off having to pay a lot of $$ for an x-ray.
For those with experience with wet FIP, does the swelling of the abdomen happen suddenly? Or gradually? Does my cat's swollen abdomen look/sound like it could be FIP?
Any insight on this matter will be greatly appreciated!
____
A little backstory about Sora:
Last year around October (at around 6 months), he got his poop tested and his blood drawn and tested. We took him to the vet at the time because he was presenting problems from a runny nose, drooling, and even neurological signs (he kept walking in circles and looked as if he couldn't see; this particular symptom only lasted a few minutes though). This lasted for only half a day which was when we left Sora home alone. Later that night, after giving him a lot of attention, he was completely fine. (So my husband and I assumed he has separation anxiety or something.) Tests were also completely normal and this incident never happened again.
I'm only mentioning this because I'm wondering if, during the blood draw and the tests they did, could they have tested for feline coronavirus at the time? They said they tested his blood for "everything" and everything came back normal. So would this mean he didn't have coronavirus and therefore not possibly have FIP now? (Also for reference, he's the only cat in our house. There are 2 dogs though, but Sora's the only cat and he's strictly indoor until 2 days ago after the vet visit when we started taking him on walks just around our neighborhood but he's had no contact with other cats since the day we got him at the pet shop when he was a month-ish old and when he was 5 months old when we put him in a boarding place while we were out of town for a week).