Kitten enlarged kidney and intestine

Hi.

We rescued a feral kitten here in New Zealand and he has had pale, foul smelling diarrhoea since we got him (approx 8 weeks ago; he is now approximately 16 weeks old). He used to suffer really badly from very smelly wind, but this seems to have improved, and it never seemed to bother him: only us! We have taken him to the vets loads about this problem, and they kept saying it was diet-related, but we've tried adjusting this accordingly to a few different diets without luck. He had all his vaccinations and has been sterilised, and has never shown any sign of illness apart from his diarrhoea; in fact, he has always seemed really happy and bright, and has no problems with his appetite or putting on weight!! the vet recently opened him up to have a look, and found one very enlarged kidney and a section of very enlarged intestine nearby; they thought it might be juvenile cancer, so took a biopsy, but this came back negative. They have not done blood tests, or tested the biopsy sample for any other viral conditions to my knowledge, which I thought was surprising.

The vet told me it would be expensive to work out what was wrong, but, given that the kitten was feral, that it might be AIDS or FIP (?!). She told us to "give her a ring in a couple of weeks or so to book him in again", which doesn't inspire much confidence. She didn't give any advice on the health of our other cats (whether to try to separate them or not or whether it was too late....).

Anyone know what this could be, and whether I should try to keep our other cats separate from the kitten? They've hardly had any contact with the kitten as they take a long time to get to know new kids on the block....also, any advice on tests to suggest to the vet would be helpful, as we don't have a lot of faith in this one and no alternatives are available in our rural area:-(

Many thanks in advance for any help that can be suggested

Ryan and Veronica

Hello

Sounds a tricky case. I think it is a little disappointing that basic bloods have not been run, and would have checked for FIV (feline AIDS) and FeLV (infectious leukaemia). Testing for FIP is more problematic but there are some tests that can support the diagnosis.

Without getting personal I don't know how much of an issue money is with you. Often these cases can be a series of miscommunications or your vet trying to help you and not spend too much of your money. If you can afford it and your own vet is not making progress then ask for a referral to a more specialist centre.

Sorry I can't offer much more

Apache