# No symptoms of worms, just round belly.....



## kristen98 (Feb 2, 2005)

When I adopted Macy a few months ago, she looked heavy. Her stomach was round. When I took her from my aunt, she was giving her deworming medication and she gave me two more dates I needed to administer the medication. The first date I administered the medication, I got half of it in her mouth and the other half on the wall, sofa, my hair (you get the idea). The third time I gave it to her, I was able to get it all in her mouth. 

She was free fed before I took her in. She was pretty spoiled because when my Aunt found her, she was starving and her bones were sticking out of her body as a 2 month old kitten. (She's 9 or 10 months now). When I took her, I fed her twice a day - 1/3 cup of Innova dry and 1/2 of a 3oz. can of wellness. As a couple of weeks went by her belly went down as I thought the dewormer was working and she was loosing weight. However, she has seemed to plateau and her belly is still round (though not as round as it was when I first got her). It's been the same for the past month. She has no other symptoms, no diahrea, no worms in her feces. She has thrown up a couple times, but no worms. Everything else seems fine except for her round belly.

It's time to take her to the vet, but I just wanted to know what you guys thought. I don't know if she's just fat (even though she hasn't lost any weight) or if she has worms.


----------



## lolakitty23 (Aug 17, 2004)

You say she is 9-10 months old, but what size kitty is she? Is she a large cat whose healthy weight would be around 10-12 pounds, or is she a small cat who would be healthy at 8-9 pounds? Knowing this will determine how much you should be feeding her (i.e.: a 1/2 C scoop of food is fine for a large cat, but should be about half that for a small cat).

We were feeding our small cat, Binx, about a 1/2 C scoop at a meal and he devloped a round tummy. Jim actually started calling him "tummy" instead of Binx. :lol: But, since I did a little research on feeding by size, he's lost his buddha belly and has TONS more energy!! He's not even a year old yet, so I'm glad we got his weight under control.

Hopefully, for your kitty, it's just a matter of food portions and not worms (yuck!) Good luck!


----------



## kristen98 (Feb 2, 2005)

Macy is short in body length but has got some meat on her bones plus the round belly. I am guessing she is around 9 or 10 pounds. On the other hand, Muffins is long and lanky around 7.5 pounds.

I feed Macy 1/3 cup of dry Innova in the morning. Then I feed 1.5 oz. of canned Wellness at night plus a little more dry Innova. I feel bad because it seems she's still hungry after she eats her portion, but her stomach isn't going down anymore even though I feel like I'm not feeding her enough.

How can you tell the difference between a pot belly and a chubby stomach?


----------



## lolakitty23 (Aug 17, 2004)

kristen, check out this link about how you can tell the diff. b/t a healthy cat and an overweight cat, it may be helpful:

http://www.purinaone.com/catcare_health_signs_flash.asp

click on "body condition" underneith the cat pic and then play around with the buttons for side view/top view and underfed/healthy/overfed.

You might get a good idea from that just how in shape/out of shape your kitty is.


----------



## Lynda J (Sep 8, 2004)

My Dusty is short from head to tail and not tall and she is round. Vet says she isn't over weight just how she is built. 

ONe thing is get her spayed.


----------



## kristen98 (Feb 2, 2005)

Thanks for your help. I checked the link and it helped a lot. The only thing is that the link shows an overweight cat as the whole underside dropping down straight across. She is just round in her stomach area. I don't know. I'll just take her to the vet to make sure she doesn't have worms anyway.


----------

