My cat has bulging veins..... Help!

[Ghirly]

Looking for a bit of advice.

My cat is 17 months old, has recently given birth, kittens are 4 weeks 4 days.
I've noticed recently that she has protruding veins down one side of her body. Not sure if it actually is veins but it feels like that.

They don't seem to be sore but I'm really worried about it.
I thought I'd ask on here before going to the vet as I don't want to appear as a neurotic parent!!!

Any advice would be fab!
Thanks in advance

Gosh, no clue I'm afraid.
So consider this a gentle bump in the hope that someone more useful comes along...

Never heard of this - have 9 cats & seen lots of kittens come into the world - I would take her to the vets. X

I'm wondering whether it could be something lactating related - blood vessels supplying the teats which have engorged or something.

Give the vet a call, Ghirly and ask whether you should take her in.

PS - and never worry about contacting the vet. From my knowledge of they'd much rather be contacted at an early stage on a suspicion than have to deal with a full blown crisis later on.

Thank you everyone for your replies, and for your 'bump' HazeltheMcWitch

I'll call the vets tomoro morning.
Thanks all

Best of luck.

Any news on your cat? Hope she is ok x

Thanks for asking after her Melissakitkat
I didn't get a chance to phone the vet from work this morning (I was in myself) so ill call them when they re-open on Tuesday.

Just thought I'd update this.
I spoke to the vet and she said that my cat has these bulging veins because her wee body isn't coping well with feeding all the kittens exclusively.

I have been advised to start weaning the kittens to give the mum a break and with the combined feeding the mum cats body can recover a bit.

I feel really bad that I didn't know this and all this time her body was working overtime and not coping.

Don't feel bad - you didn't know after all and you had a word with the vet when you noticed. The kits should be eating solids soon so she'll have a chance to recover.

Probably a good idea to get her spayed now though?

At least it's not serious. We weaned our kittens early with kitten milk as our mummy cat was struggling. We also got her done even though she was still feeding as previously she got pregnant whilst breast feeding - she is now happy & plump with no more babies to look after. Thank you for the update as was thinking of you both x