Haley Andrews was nervous that her kitty Cheesecake had fallen ill because of her bloated abdomen. But it turns out the kitty’s plump belly was just very well-fed.
Andrews was scared that Cheesecake had FIP when she saw the size of her belly. She had fostered hundred of kittens over the years and lost a few to the illness.
She told Newsweek that bloating and fluid build-up around the stomach were symptoms of the illness. She says her anxiety got the best of her when she rushed the kitten to the vet.
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Thankfully, there wasn’t an emergency. Cheesecake just looked like she had been eating a lot of cheesecake.
Her swollen belly wasn’t a serious illness. The doctor said that she was just overweight.
All of Andrews’ worries just melted away. She was so glad that Cheesecake didn’t have FIP or worms.
“I took her to the vet yesterday. They ran some tests. Looked for fluid. I was stricken with anxiety, heart racing. Untreated FIP is usually fatal to kittens, and losing Cheesecake would be too much. The vet comes back into my room and hands me my carrier with Cheesecake back in it. Her face doesn’t indicate much. She looks at me. I look at her. I’m terrified,” Andrews wrote on Facebook. “‘Just fat,’ she says. Cheesecake is just fat.”
She had been trying to feed Cheesecake well after the kitten was much smaller than her siblings and didn’t seem to be growing. The vet’s advice was to feed her cat less.
“I truly was really nervous the whole time at the vet, but I know her personally (she works with me through the foster organization) and when she told me that she was just fat, we both had a laugh and I felt super relieved. She pretty much just said ‘perhaps feed her less,'” Andrews told Newsweek.
But Andrews said that Cheesecake being overweight was better than her being underweight for a rescue kitten.
Glutinous
“In rescue, a chubby kitten is a healthy kitten, because they require so much food just to grow and be healthy, but Cheesecake was being a little too glutinous, as was her sister, Cannoli. I scaled back how many cans of wet food I gave them and now they’re both a little less fat,” she said.
Cheesecake is doing well, and her belly is going down.
“We switched foods to a digestion-friendly food, and Cheesecake’s tummy has returned to acceptable, less bulbous levels. She tooted A LOT last night. Gotta work it all out. Sometimes, you just have to find the right food fit!” her Andres said.
You can follow Cheesecake’s story on Tiny Tim’s Tiny Foster Family’s Facebook page.