Hello, I'm new here. Hoping to get some ideas and suggestions to follow up on with my vet.
On May 8 my neighbors found and brought me a 4-week-old kitten who was undersized and potbellied, just basically a bundle of bones with skin loosely draped over them, and this big bulging belly. We suspect his mother dropped him off because he wasn't thriving.
He had a two-dose course of standard kitten dewormer, plus two weeks of Albon even though he tested negative for coccidia and giardia. He was tested for FIV and FeLV at 7 weeks and again at 13 weeks, testing negative both times.
He also had 3 emergency clinic visits, one hospitalization, and a total of 9 veterinary contacts in the first 8 weeks I had him. Nothing specific was ever diagnosed, just "fading kitten syndrome."
Now, at 15-16 weeks old, he is still small for his age (about 2 1/2 pounds) but finally seems stable. He's eating, growing, filling out with muscles, having reasonably normal stools (a bit soft, but not runny, and no blood or mucus), and doing typical kitten zooming and pouncing and playing. He's on metronidazole twice a day, and simethicone infant anti-gas drops 3 times a day.
But he still has a disproportionately distended swollen belly. Sometimes it's more distended and sometimes less, but it's never un-swollen.
If he doesn't have parasites and isn't constipated, what else could cause this?
On May 8 my neighbors found and brought me a 4-week-old kitten who was undersized and potbellied, just basically a bundle of bones with skin loosely draped over them, and this big bulging belly. We suspect his mother dropped him off because he wasn't thriving.
He had a two-dose course of standard kitten dewormer, plus two weeks of Albon even though he tested negative for coccidia and giardia. He was tested for FIV and FeLV at 7 weeks and again at 13 weeks, testing negative both times.
He also had 3 emergency clinic visits, one hospitalization, and a total of 9 veterinary contacts in the first 8 weeks I had him. Nothing specific was ever diagnosed, just "fading kitten syndrome."
Now, at 15-16 weeks old, he is still small for his age (about 2 1/2 pounds) but finally seems stable. He's eating, growing, filling out with muscles, having reasonably normal stools (a bit soft, but not runny, and no blood or mucus), and doing typical kitten zooming and pouncing and playing. He's on metronidazole twice a day, and simethicone infant anti-gas drops 3 times a day.
But he still has a disproportionately distended swollen belly. Sometimes it's more distended and sometimes less, but it's never un-swollen.
If he doesn't have parasites and isn't constipated, what else could cause this?