Kittens are an important stage in the growth and development of cats. They need to supplement various nutrients to maintain metabolic balance in the body. Owners will also feed cats a variety of food and nutrients. Generally speaking, kittens have different gastrointestinal digestion processes. These aspects are not perfect yet. Sometimes we will find that the cat’s belly suddenly bulges when feeding. What factors are causing this?

Abdominal distension in kittens is mostly caused by food accumulation. Food accumulation is mainly caused by the weak motor function of the digestive tract of young cats. The contents are accumulated and cannot be moved backward, resulting in excessive food or feces in the digestive tract. The characteristics are: Your cat's abdomen is mildly or moderately enlarged. ​​​​​​

Cat food may cause bloating in kittens. Since some cat feeds contain soybeans, when the kittens’ intestines cannot digest them, the bacteria in the intestines will ferment these indigestible substances and produce Gas can cause abdominal distension and, in severe cases, diarrhea. If the owner ignores it, it will become a habit. In the long run, the digestive system will inevitably weaken. Indigestion means malabsorption. No matter how much and high-quality food is eaten, it will still be due to lack of food. Certain nutrients may cause disease. Cats should also not eat feed that is too high in fiber. In order to reduce costs, these foods incorporate too much fiber, which will shorten the digestion time of the small intestine and speed up the process of entering the large intestine. The result is the same as soybean food. The coliform bacteria will ferment the undigested food. , causing abdominal distension. Since most kittens are greedy, these low-quality feeds, if the palatability is good and the kittens like to eat them, the owner will think it is good feed. As a result, the kittens will eat more, defecate more, and even become soft. The patient has diarrhea, abdominal distension, and malabsorption, and the owner is completely unaware of it.

The above are some feeding reasons. Of course, abdominal distension may also be caused by some pathological reasons, such as ascites. Ascites is caused by peritonitis or hypoalbuminemia or cardiac insufficiency. When cats have ascites, we You will see an enlarged abdomen on the outside. If you touch the cat's abdomen, you will feel fluctuations, and it will show different levels with changes in body position. At the same time, the cat's appetite will decrease and its breathing will be rapid.

Hirschsprung disease can also cause abdominal distension in cats, which is caused by congenital defects in the nerve plexus within the cat's colon wall or colon motility disorders caused by other reasons. Constipation is the main manifestation of cat megacolon, or bloody stool. The cat will vomit, lose weight, and have a bulging abdomen like a barrel.

Other aspects, such as acute peritonitis, are caused by bacterial infection and are usually accompanied by an increase in body temperature and vomiting. Or hernia, which can also cause abdominal distension in cats, so clinically, the differential diagnosis of abdominal distension is very important. We can first palpate, and then perform puncture examination to determine whether there is ascites. A white blood cell test can confirm Presence of inflammatory infection.

Some pathological causes require symptomatic treatment after diagnosis. Some kitten abdominal distension caused by feeding requires owners to pay attention to feeding issues in daily life. Six months oldIn the future, cats will start to grow slower and their activity levels will decrease slightly; at this time, they will eat a larger amount of food per meal, so they can reduce the number of meals per day. Although the cat's size is very similar to that of an adult cat at this time, it will still grow somewhat. Many cat owners will feed their cats different foods when they reach sexual maturity; in fact, cats like to eat high-quality dry cat food; at this time, you can add a little nutritious canned cat food to the dry cat food to suit their needs. Different nutritional requirements due to slower growth rates.

Do not feed human food to kittens, otherwise it will cause unnecessary distressing behavior. Feed the kitten home-cooked food, or feed the kitten with adult cat food (especially weight loss cat food), or feed the kitten completely Adding additional nutritional supplements such as vitamins to a balanced cat food may cause nutritional imbalance.