Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 10/13/2011

Question
Hi,
My kitten (female 3 months old) suddenly died two days ago. The day before I thought she was perfectly fine I just remember her sleeping when I came home from work.. I came home from work the next day and eventually found her under the stairs lying in her own fluids i think .. It was clear i don't think it was urine and there was a pile of vomit ( light brown in color)  beside her. She tried walking and her back legs were really wobbly and she looked lethargic and could hardly walk and collapsed on the ground.. Her respirations were really shallow and she wouldn't swallow water for me.. She was doing the worst meow I ever heard in my life :( it was thanksgiving so hard to find a vet but I found one half an hour away , my friend drove and i sat in the back with her and petted her and she died in the car on the way there.
I just need some closure i feel like it's my fault. I have a cat who eats adult food so feeding them was a challenge because my kitten would always go to the adult cats food and not her own, she always inhailed food so fast.. I was planning on calling the vets this week for her shots and then this happened, would her not having her shots have anything to do with this? I noticed she wasn't really growing for a while and one day last week she looked really bloated. She also always knocked the garbage can over and try to eat human food so I had to move it outside. I also gave her  a flea/tick spray on her at less then 2 months because she had fleas, never been outside. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you kindly

Answer
Hi Brittney,
I am sorry about your kitty.I know how hard this is and how easily we blame ourselves for things that we don't understand or might have prevented.

Of course it's impossible to know what actually caused the kitten to die, but there are several things that could have contributed.

Worms is certainly one of them. Kittens are born worm free and then get them via the mothers milk. If left unchecked, these worms will grow in a small kittens belly until she can no longer utilize the food that she eats and thus she will stop growing. A bloated stomach is a very clear sign of worms in kittens, just a "pot-bellied' look is in children.

Kittens need to be wormed at 6 weeks, then ten days later and then another ten days later to kill off the later hatches of worms inside the kitten.

Another thing that could have been wrong is that she had FIP, or Feline Infectious Peritonitis, which is always fatal. No one is really sure how cats get this but it's pretty much assumed that they can get it from grooming, possibly born with it, and from fighting. It's possible with kittens that they get it from their mothers who are infected with it. It's a virus (they think) and there is a vaccine for it but a cat/kitten would need to be tested first for the disease. FIP cats also have a rounded, bloated abdomen.

One of the biggest killers of kittens is leukemia. This they get from the infected mother as well. This is a virus that is also fatal but preventable if you test and vaccinate. You didn't say where this kitten came from but it's always prudent to get a kitten tested twice before adoption if possible.

They will not grow very well if they have leukemia. They are usually pale on the gums and in their ears and around their eyes as they don't have enough red blood cells.

Feeding the kitten adult food would not cause this. I would, however, get all of your cats tested for leukemia and FIP and get them vaccinated if they are negative.

Chances are pretty good that this kitten died from a worm overload but again, you would have to have the vet look inside to know this for sure. She could have also had a huge tapeworm which would have done the same thing. Tapeworms are ingested by eating an infected flea and you said she had fleas. So it's possible that she did get one that way.

Again, I am really sorry. Use the knowledge you gain from this to make sure that your next kitten is seen by a vet right away (at 6 weeks if you get one that young) and that it is tested, wormed regularly and vaccinated. Then you will have a healthy kitten that you can put on kitten growth formula and she will grow up healthy and strong.

You didn't know and you are not to blame. So don't beat yourself up over this. Just move forward and think about the health plan you will have with your vet for your next little bundle of fur. :-)