Pregnant cat

Orla K

Today I seemed to have taken in a pregnant abandoned cat. From what it looks like she's not too old and it's probably her first litter. She still has a few weeks to go.

I have contacted the shelter(where I volunteer) and I'm just waiting on a reply.

Now I know that the shelter are loaded with kittens and these ones will be too young to go into the shelter, they'll need to be fostered until their immune system is up and running. At the moment in the shelter there are a few kittens with the flu that are in isolation (they got shiny new cages this year for that, the ones like you see in vets)

What I might do is keep her here until the time is right for the kittens to be mixed in with the rest of the lot. I'm fostering two kittens now just for two weeks until they get a little bigger. I know they had trouble finding a foster home for another cat a few months ago and she's already made a nest in my bath tub.

If I'm going to do this I'm would like to know peoples experience of minding a cat in this state. Over ten years ago when we were young we did have a little kitten factory, a stray that I could never seem to get neutered but she was nearly always outside and before she came to us she was well used to having kittens.

It may not happen that I'll mind it but I will do it if no one else is willing.

carwash_2006

Hi there
One question that pops into my head, if she still has a few weeks to go would you find a vet that will do a late spay on her? It's not the most ideal thing, but in this sort of case I would not rule it out, especially if the shelter is already seriouly overloaded.

Hope it works out well anyway.

Orla K

I did think of that but it does go against the policy of the shelter and personally for me she would too far gone to do it.

Their are alot of kittens in the shelter but a few of them were rehomed so theirs less than their was(one that was rehomed I fostered for a bit and she just hid in the corner hissing with new people, didn't think she would get a home but she was only in the shelter a few hours before going again:D

morganafay

It's very easy minding a pregnant cat/kittens. The mother does all the work. Just let her have a quiet place, maybe a spare room or quiet corner of the house, to make her nest. A big cardboard box with a hole cut in it, or anything like that.

Don't feed her too much while pregnant, but do give her more meals a day because she won't be able to fit as much in her stomach with all the kittens taking up space. And when she has the kittens then you can free feed her dry food. It'd be good to give her kitten food too.

Keep an eye on them, and you can weigh them once a week to see if they are gaining weight, though you'll probably be able to tell anyway. They should be lively and be able to crawl easily.

They can start eating kitten food at about 4 weeks.

She'll probably show them to use the litter tray then, or you can just put them in after they've eaten and they'll learn almost straight away.

You can handle them loads from birth as long as the mother lets you. If she's friendly then you can sit quietly with her while she gives birth, but don't interfere really unless you need to, like if she's not cleaning a kitten, then clean it up with a towel, clear the airways and rub it so it starts breathing, and then hold it up to the mom to see if she licks it and then will let it nurse.

Cats are brilliant mothers and don't usually have problems giving birth. If she is straining to give birth and not having any kittens for a while, or getting distressed then it'd be best to take her to the vets. But cat births are usually easier than dogs. While she's giving birth you could let her drink cat milk, but don't give her food in case she needs a c-section. There's a good chance she could have the babies when you're not around though too.

Orla K

Thanks for that everything just reasured me that I know what to do.

Except for the feeding when pregnant, since she's underweight she got as much as she wanted in one go. It never dawned on me that her stomach wouldn't be able to hold it too well.


What I'm worried most about now is since she was starved would this have slowed development. She's going to the vet nurse tomorrow for a health check, I'm sure they'll advise me on the whole underweight thing.

The Sweeper

Ask the vet nurse about Nutrigel - it's a high calorie supplement for underweight and recuperating cats and dogs. You might be able to give the cat that, or something similar to that, to build her up.

morganafay

Hope she'll be ok and the babies. Often the body will put the babies first, so hopefully they'll be healthy even if she is skinny.

The thing about feeding them a lot whole pregnant, you don't want the babies to grow too big in case she has trouble delivering. But I'm sure the vet will know what to do because of her being underweight.

Maybe giving her kitten food would help, or a special food the vet might recommend. When one of my cats had 10 kittens to feed (fostering kittens) we gave her cod liver oil to try to help build her up, but I don't know if that's recommended or anything, but it seemed to help and she loved it, and we also gave her kitten milk.

The Sweeper

The problem with wet food is its water content is high, which is good for cats and kittens generally, but it means an underweight cat has to eat a large volume to get calories. If you buy a good quality wet or dry kitten food, it has more calories so she may be able to put on more weight using it.

(Now - bizarre tip that goes against what I usually tell people; yoghurt, cheese and cream generally have less lactose than milk. I know some breeders who breed large cats - Ragdolls and Maine Coons - who supplement during pregnancy by feeding double cream, grated cheese and plain yoghurt - the sugar free natural stuff - to help keep their queens fat and happy during pregnancy and nursing. If the cat doesn't have an adverse reaction to a bit of it, you could try a teaspoonful of double cream a couple of times a day, along with something like Royal Canin Kitten dry, and some raw meat - if she'll eat it, try something cheap like beef chuck steak. You can put it through a blender to make it easier to eat if she's not taking to it in strips. She'll get a lot of protein and calories without the moisture filler that's in commercial wet food. Again, try a little bit of everything to see how she takes to it, before offering her a plateful.)

Orla K

I will be giving her some raw meat, I know when my granny was trying to fatten her up she got raw chicken(she's always given it to her own cat and he's on a diet now) I know she'll eat that, but it will be in bite sized pieces as at least one of her teeth are broken, it looks recent enough but I only got a glance at it.


Thanks for the replies. I'll let people know what happens tomorrow and I'll post a pic of her too.

Also I have to laugh at this, Oscar gets royal canin sensible(only food that doesn't cause him stomach upset) the other cat(who's still not named) is getting echinacea and manuka honey mixed in with some wet food, there's two kittens here(about8/9weeks, I think) that are just wolfing down everything and anything(feeding them kitten food) and now mammy cat is going to get raw meat and probably other supplements too:o (I started out with one cat and that wasn't even a whole one!)

Orla K

As you can see she's not too big but I don't think it'll be a big litter, that vet said she was young and it's likely that it is her first litter. Concidering she is underweight it probably makes her belly look smaller

Went to the vet today, she's in good enough shape, her tooth is broken but they said nothing can be done about that now, her ears were done for mites which she had a bad infection. She got the treatment for worms which go's on the back of the neck. With the weight thing as someone suggested I'm to give her kitten food and leave out dry food for her to nibble on. She said that she has about a week or two left that it was difficult to tell with her being underweight.

I have the vets number in case anything gos wrong when she's giving birth and she told me what to do incase the kittens come out the wrong way.

She also called me crazy cat lady:o(not exact words but very near them) and told me that I could put up a poster in the window to rehome the kittens. She seemed impressed that I was fostering kittens and taking in this one too, I guess not alot of people foster animals around here.

The Sweeper

Wow she looks very tiny. This is going to sound odd based on that picture but to me she looks round the 9mths to 1 year stage - bigger than lanky kittens, but still with that very particular slenderness to the head and neck (though being underweight will do that to you).

Definitely feed her every time you look at her - and keep feeding her through the birth and on into nursing, where she'll continue to use up loads of calories. The kittens will start to eat her food from about four weeks onwards but they'll keep suckling from her as long as she lets them, which could be up to 8 weeks or 10 weeks. It depends if she goes back into heat quickly, which hopefully she won't, being so underweight.

One important kitten tip - if you need to use a hot water bottle for any reason, for instance if the weather turns very cold, or if she rejects the kittens and you want to keep them warm - kittens cannot regulate their own body temperature, and they will get cold if away from their mum, but they can also overheat when using a hot water bottle or a heat pad, so you need to give them room to get away from it. You're better off wrapping the heat source in a towel and laying it flat on another towel, and placing the kittens right beside it so they get the heat, but they can move away if it's too much. That's better than creating a cosy bed where the hot water bottle is on the bottom and they go on top of it.

Hope it all goes well for you!

MoonDancer

Lovely little cat Good luck with everything, keep us updated

Orla K

The Sweeper wrote: »

Wow she looks very tiny. This is going to sound odd based on that picture but to me she looks round the 9mths to 1 year stage - bigger than lanky kittens, but still with that very particular slenderness to the head and neck (though being underweight will do that to you).

I think in the pic she looks smaller than she is, but not much, I would have put her somewhere between 1yr to 1yr 5months. She does have the adult look to her but she's still young.

With the skinnyness my granny said you could see her back bone at first but she and afew of the neighbours were trying to feed her (but my granny has cataracts in both eyes so can't be too sure about that) but you can kind of feel it, and you can see the tops of her hips, not so much with the angle she's at in the pic.

She got a good size cardboard box and a proper feeding bowl today too.

Oscar keeps on trying to have a look at her too, he opens the bathroom door and peers in over the top of the bath at her.

Orla K

She has started having the kittens at about five. I got woken up at about 20 past 5 and one kitten was already out.

She didn't chose the bath to have them in, she decided the cramped space between the wall and the press was best Seriously she had no room to turn around she would have ended up crushing one of the kittens. I moved the kitten to the bed I made for them and she soon followed.

The good thing is she hasn't regected the kittens, although she's perfering to clean herself than the kittens.


I also had to pull two out! Both of these came out backwards and one of their heads got stuck (it struggled alot and couldn't get air) the other it's tail end seemed to be hanging out for a long time and when she was pushing I pulled to speed it up.

The Sweeper

How's she going with them? Good on you for helping. So that's three so far? Birth can take place over some time so there may be more to come. Are these three suckling?

And I'm not surprised she didn't pick the bath. They never pick the spot you offer. Be glad it wasn't on your bed. Or the couch.

Orla K

The Sweeper wrote: »

How's she going with them? Good on you for helping. So that's three so far? Birth can take place over some time so there may be more to come. Are these three suckling?

And I'm not surprised she didn't pick the bath. They never pick the spot you offer. Be glad it wasn't on your bed. Or the couch.

The thing was with the bath she never got out of it much for, that's where she slept even though I made a nice bed for her. She only had the choice of the bathroom. I didn't want her mixing with my own cats, she's not tested for anything and no name cat is snuffly still.

They are suckling fine, I was thinking about buying kitten formula just so it wouldn't be too difficult on the mammy cat.

I can still feel one inside her so there is at least one left but she's showing no signs of having it.

I have a pic but to be it's a little awful not only for the plecenta in it that she hasn't eaten yet but it was taken with my phone so as a photo it's not great.
http://i25.tinypic.com/2mphffo.jpg

Oh and two of the kittens are B&W mostly black(as far as I can tell) and one is like it's mammy, a little stripy thing.

Orla K

4th one came but this one may be the weakest of the lot. The mammy cat is having trouble at the birthing stage of things and on some others I've had to unblock the kittens airways. I had walked away for a bit and when I walked back in there was another kitten there not moving and still in the sack. I opened it was rubbing the kitten made sure it's mouth nose were clear but nothing I was even looking to see any slightest bit of movement but no nothing. The mammy cat started licking it and it just spultered! It was still alive but barely, I moved it so that it would be easier for it to empty it's lungs. It made alot of noises I never heard from a cat before, I wasn't sure if it could breed in and then it just started meowing louder than the rest of them. Going to have to keep an eye on that one.

Also she isn't cleaning up after the whole thing, some of the kittens are still attached to the plesenta

Orla K

There was a 5th but well that one was dead before it came out and by the looks of it was a good thing:(

If people hadn't of dumped this cat and let it starve it would have gotten enough neutrants to be alive:mad:

The Sweeper

If she won't eat the placenta, you will need to get rid of it - but labour is exhausting so she may not have the energy to focus on eating immediately. This is going to sound utterly gross, but treat the placenta as you would any piece of raw meat - if it's lying there long enough to start to dry out, take it away and dispose of it yourself.

Let her work on suckling the kittens herself before you introduce formula - if she's managing, they're better on her milk than on formula. Keep us updated - if some of the kittens are small they may not be out of the woods yet. The one that didn't make it - don't take that kitten away from her until she's had a sniff and rejected it herself. The same if the worst happens and you lose any more of them - let her ignore them before you remove them.

Orla K

The Sweeper wrote: »

If she won't eat the placenta, you will need to get rid of it - but labour is exhausting so she may not have the energy to focus on eating immediately. This is going to sound utterly gross, but treat the placenta as you would any piece of raw meat - if it's lying there long enough to start to dry out, take it away and dispose of it yourself.

Let her work on suckling the kittens herself before you introduce formula - if she's managing, they're better on her milk than on formula. Keep us updated - if some of the kittens are small they may not be out of the woods yet. The one that didn't make it - don't take that kitten away from her until she's had a sniff and rejected it herself. The same if the worst happens and you lose any more of them - let her ignore them before you remove them.

It's already removed, didn't pay it one bit of attention. Maybe she did sniff it when I was out of the room but when I picked it up and put it in the box she wasn't even minding.

That thing you said about the placenta isn't the grossest thing I've come across today! She seems to be eating it but just very slowly. Only one left I think either that or she's ontop of the other one.

I still feel sick thinking about the 5th one:(

mymo

Good on you Orla, hope she's ok. She looked tiny to have that many kittens.
You have given her somewhere warm, dry and safe to have her kittens, I know one didn't make it, but if she'd been left the way she was maybe none would have.
Best of luck with them.

Orla K

mymo wrote: »

Good on you Orla, hope she's ok. She looked tiny to have that many kittens.
You have given her somewhere warm, dry and safe to have her kittens, I know one didn't make it, but if she'd been left the way she was maybe none would have.
Best of luck with them.

Oh yeah she is lucky, even if I wasn't there two would have gotten stuck for too long and she didn't remove the sack from them so maybe only one would have lived.

To be honest I'm not so much discused that one didn't make it, it's more that it wasn't developed fully and I'm putting that down to the cat being without food to feed all the kittens. It wasn't a pretty sight:(

mymo

Was there another kitten inside?
How many altogether?
You're a granny now:D

MoonDancer

Thats great news to hear, congrats granny LOL

Orla K

There's four now. I don't think there's any more kittens in her, I hope there isn't, four's plenty for her.

Three are black and white one with a white chin, one with a white stripe on the nose the other with a white neck and then a little one that looks like the mammy cat.

I'll post a pic up soon but right now all in pics you can't really see the kittens they're just a mass of fur.

I'll have to watch the white neck one, it's feeding but it wasn't breeding for a good white and had fluid in it's lungs, that one mightn't survive.

Orla K

Oh and my own granny is delighted to hear the kittens are good. She said none of them would be alive if it wasn't for me:o

Orla K

Here's some photos of them, some photos are a bit blurry, it's a low light situation and I was a bit lazy to take the photos.

The one with the white bit on the neck nearly died, in the pic it's fighting with the other one for the milk









Over 100g:D normal for new born is 90g-110g gaining 10g a day

This one's a little over 100g too!

This one's a little under, I'm just hoping that it's only because he wasn't centred.

100g:D

HealthNWealth

Wow what cute kittens! You did a wonderful thing, I wish there was more people out there like you!!! Keep us updated on their progress. Where do you live by the way?

Orla K

Just a little update on the kittens. All are doing well, they're now twice their size and weight one has it's eyes fully open the rest are just lagging behind a bit and are only opening now.

Yesterday I could hear one just meowing non-stop, so i checked up on it and it crawled out of the bed and onto the another little bed(base of tepee) the mammy cat sometimes sits on that when the kittens are sleeping and this little one followed her but couldn't get back when the mammy cat moved it couldn't get back so started bawling. Mammy cat doesn't seem to know how to pick them up she was getting very worked up over this kitten not getting back in the box.

Mammy cat also seems to have loose stools(not too bad, just a little mushy) and can't seem to hold it in too well(only little bits) she was treated for worms/fleas before she had the kittens (suitable for pregnant/nursing cats it was the one on the back of the neck) I'm just going to have to keep an eye on it for now.

I'll post up pics of them soon.

Rochester

Gorgeous mommie cat and very impressed with your midwifery skills.