Hey guys! So, I’ve had pretty smooth sailing with my orphan kittens – they’re 7 weeks old now. We’re just about weaned. They’re eating four canned food feedings a day (babycat intensive) and they free feed on royal canin baby kibble and water. Also, they only go in their upgraded kitty ‘mansion’ when I eat or sleep or have to leave the house (so they spend about 3/4 of the day in my lap and 1/4 playing in the rooms I have blocked off: my office, the hall, and the kitchen). But we’ve had such an easy three weeks (since our last round of worry), that it seems like it was time for some more trouble.
I’m not really sure how to explain what’s going on with Mina – I guess the best way to explain it is that she’s having a lot of trouble pooping, even when her poop is soft. Around the time she needs to poop, she starts getting distressed. For about the twenty minutes before AND after she poops, she has trouble with her back legs – but I can’t tell if she’s dragging them to ‘itch’ herself or if she *can’t* use them. My mom’s been here, and I’m leaning more towards can’t use them, while my mom thinks she’s just dragging them to itch. While she’s trying to poop, she pants – open mouthed, tongue out – while she does. But after she calms down (about 15/20 minutes), she’s immediately back to jumping and playing and pretty much just like her normal self — until it’s time to poop again.
I took her to the ER vet last night – but a) they were SWAMPED, and b) Mina was already back to normal by the time I got her there, so they looked at her and pushed us to the back because she was being lovey and climbing all over me and loving on every tech that came to see her. She did this – acted like a perfectly healthy kitten – for four hours – during repeated checks. So, they finally took her (and i stool sample I collected at home) from me and had her in the back for forty minutes (have I mentioned yet that I hate this vet? I prefer to stay with my animals) and ended up telling me that she was just constipated (regardless of the fact that she’d had one soft poop that morning, followed by one hard poop just before going in). I asked if she needed an enema or anything, and they palpitated her stomach and said no – that they could feel her colon (??) and that there was nothing else in there. They also tested her for worms – said she came back negative but gave me a wormer anyway (??). I also told them that she’d rolled off an ottoman I sit next to me for them to sleep on, and that it’s about 16 inches off the ground, and that she climbs on/off it just fine when she needs to. I thought maybe this was the problem at first, because my Meathead fell off a bookshelf when he was about 2.. but it was a really high bookshelf and he bruised/inflamed his hip joints and couldn’t use his back legs for about a day. But they seemed to think this couldn’t be the problem because the leg things is only when she poops.
So I left (with no treatment of any kind) thinking she’d be fine. All they said was to take away the kibble for another 2 weeks. And she was fine, until she went to the bathroom this morning. It’s runny again (could be because I added KMR back into their diet yesterday AFTER Mina’s issues started because I started to worry if maybe I had taken it from them too soon – six week mark), and she did the leg thing, again. I held her for a few minutes, and after that, she jumped off me and ran and started playing like nothing was wrong with her. So it was a much shorter leg episode than it had been, about 5 minutes after instead of 20.
I thought about going to my vet this morning and I still can – they don’t close until 5, so I have time. I’m a little strapped after last night, but I’m not too proud to borrow from my parents if I need to. But they’ve been running, playing, climbing, jumping, pouncing, FIGHTING (LOL) and acting fine for the last two hours.
What I’m curious about is if I need to wait this out and let the kibble/constipation (possible inflammation from rolling off the stool? Maybe it only really hurts badly when she strains to poop?) or if this is an extreme dire 911 situation that absolutely cannot wait for my next paycheck (in which case, we’ll pack up and head to MY vet right now)? Has anyone seen anything like this?
BTW: here’s a semi-current pic, from last bath day: http://i61.tinypic.com/5l1gdf.png