My cat has bloated tummy

by april
(NC)

My cat lives outside, kept in a large dog kennel, we try to keep the top fixed up to where she can't get out, but she is rather tiny and still gets lose. She had a litter of five kittens about five weeks ago, and I am not sure if she is able to be pregnant again or not, but, she had gotten out and she had disappeared for a while tonight.

She never has wondered from the yard though, she normally stays within the front yard, but she was nowhere to be found. She had gone over on the hill to my neighbours (family relative) and I had just stepped out to look for her again, when I heard their dog barking, and she came right down to the front yard ran under my mom's car hissing at the dog, I ran the dog off, then checked on her, she wouldn’t come out from under the car, but I opened a can of cat food to encourage her to come out and she did.

She seemed to still be frightened, so i got her up on the porch and I have this cat sip stuff I buy from a local store that is made for kittens and puppies to drink if they are abandoned or orphaned, and I get it for my pets as a treat and also to help give them a change from water. So, she drank that, but she didn’t really eat the can. She had a few bites but when i brought her the milk she ignored the food drank, and then walked away from it. She seemed slow, sluggish in moving, or like it was painful to her. She didn’t acknowledge me being there really, just wondered around. I went to pick her up and put her back in the cage, and i noticed her stomach felt odd, large, like it might have been bloated, and her tummy was making a lot of gurgling sounds. A couple of times i thought she had spit up or thrown up, but when i looked nothing was there. I picked her up and her tummy made more sounds, and I took her to the cage and sat her in there, the other cats came to check on her, and it was odd because they all went and sniffed her behind, the kittens were around her, and trying to lick her face and stuff (a few even sniffed her behind as well) but she paid them no mind either. She moved slowly, though I checked for any wounds, like if the dog had bitten her, and she was fine. She just moved fine, but slow. I don’t know if she is in pain, or just, dazed and in a state of shock from the dog.

She's never really been around dogs or treated that way by a dog before. Could she have gotten into something that is making her stomach bloat up, or is she pregnant, or is she just okay??? ? She is my little baby, and I don't know what I would do if I lost her. I rescued her, when she was orphaned, I don't want to lose her.

Also, I have not pictures of her right now at this moment, when she came back. I just came back in hoped on the net and was looking around to see if I could find anything that might explain what is wrong with her. Please help!

Reply
Hi
Firstly can i say that yes she could be pregnant again. Cats can become pregnant again quite soon after giving birth and that is why it is important that they are kept inside until their litter is fully weaned which is between week 8 and 12.
http://www.our-happy-cat.com/kitten-weaning.html
This is when you should get her spayed to prevent another pregnancy. It is not healthy for the cat to keep getting pregnant and it can also affect the health of the kittens.

So her bloated tummy may be an indication of being pregnant but it would be very soon for her to show signs of it yet. Combined with the fact that she is off her food and walking slowly i suspect a virus could be involved.

There are some nasty viruses out there which are similar to cat flu. They make the cats joints hurt and so they walk stiffly and they lose their appetite. These viruses vary in their severity but the fact that this cat is also trying to look after kitten’s means that she needs to be strong for them. I really would recommend that you take her to see a vet as soon as possible.

If it is a virus that she has then the more you know about them the better you will be able to care for them. I have a couple of pages on my site about these viruses which I think may be of interest to you. Hopefully your cat does not have these but you do need to have her looked at by a vet sooner rather than later, these sorts of symptoms may seem trivial at first but a recent experience of mine has taught me to err on the side of caution. Here are the pages

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-flu.html

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/calicivirus.html

Hope your cat is better soon
kate