How pregnant is my cat

Question
QUESTION: I rescued an abandoned cat who was about the size of my 6 month old cat, I planned to get her desexed but oviously not soon enough. Last week I noticed my cat had an extended stomach, and she started to come into my room a lot. She then started to make herself a bed in the bottom of my wardrobe. She is eating easily 2 times as much food and is not going outside and seems to be resting a lot. The cat is now getting quiet a bit aggressive to my other 2 cats and does not want them around her. She is purring a lot and is very affectionate with me. Can you tell if she is late pregnant or is this also signs of early pregnancy. My cat has easily put on 1 and a half kilo's but was originally very small. I live 3 hours away from any towns with a vet and would like to avoid going travelling if I can for 3 weeks. My cat doesn't travel very well at all anyway and gets ver anxious in the car. This cat was oviously abused and very scared originally and has come out a lot I do not want to traumatise her by travelling. Thank You By the way we use the word desexing instead of spaying

ANSWER: Hi Robie

I am familiar with the word De-Sex.
Now the situation you are in is perplexing. Do you have any entire Toms around you. If so then she may have mated one.
Now is she in early or late pregnancy.
Well first check her nipples and see if they are pink. If they are and they are also larger then she is almost definitely pregnant.If you GENTLY squeeze you may see some fluid. No fluid and she may be about four to six weeks pregnant. Some fluid and she is in the later stages of pregnancy.
Pregnancy lasts about 63 - 65 days in cats.
How to be sure she is pregnant would involve a scan like an X Ray at a vets. What you could also do is nip down to your local doctors and ask them if they could listen for heart beats. Some local doctors may carry this out but without any confirmation as they are not practised veterinarians.

You could check this out yourself if you could borrow a stethoscope, but you have to listen through the purring noise from the cat. Also you could palpate the cat's tummy gently and listen to see if there is a presence there.

So the difficulty now is when to determine her due date. Without an accurate scan it is impossible to tell how far along she is. So you need to be watching her very carefully over the coming days. Her actions suggests that she is 'nesting' and this usually happens within about two to three days of her due date.

Good look

Ray


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your answer. I just have one other question or maybe 2 and that is she has had the diarrhea for a day or 2 is this any indication of late pregnancy. Her nipples are red and swollen and have milk in them. Lastly how soon can i get her de-sexed after she has the kittens?

Answer
She is in late pregnancy now and I would expect her to deliver in the next five to seven days. But this is just a guestimate without any close examination I'm afraid.

Also you can have her de-sexed right after she has delivered but I would suggest you wait until the kittens have been weaned so that she is not stressed. That would be four weeks after birth. Just make sure she does not go out or she could be mated again.

Ray