new kittens deceased

Question
I think I  spoke to you before. We have a cat only 11 months old who was pregnant. Rather young for a new mom to be sure. She gave birth sometime today. MY guess was the cat had another 10 days to go before birth. No one was home all day. I got home at 5 p.m. and there was no sign of the cat. That was not unusual as she has been disappearing into secret places. At 6 p.m. my wife & step-daughter came in and both screamed loud. There were 3 dead kittens on the living room floor. Another down the hall, a 5th in the bedroom and a 6th in the closet. All were dead. They were not there when I got home. My families first response was to yell at the dog (3 yr. bitch Husky) blaming her for it. It seemed to me that it would be impossible for the dog to kill 6 kittens in that short a time but the BR door was open all day. After finding the 6th kitten at the birth site we decided it was impossible for the dog to get where the birth place was so she's innocent. Phwew for the dog. The kittens had been cleaned well so the mom had time to do her thing. I am wondering about your opinion on what happened. Realize its hard to say. 2 possibilies....either kittens were still-born or were born live and an 11 month old new mom didn't know what to do fast enough & kittens sufficated. Mom had time to clean-up the after birth as none was in the closet. My opinion is they were still-born because these were extremely large kittens. I'd guess the size of 3 weeks old at least. And 6 of them. Huge kittens. I've seen kittens a month old smaller than these were born. The mom was quite fat. But why would a new mom cart the dead ones all through the house? At 6:10 I gathered them up and the bodies were still warm so whatever happened it went fast.
   it seems to me that the mom would protect then from the dog anyway. Another idea is that the older 12 yr old femake cat killed them. Still wouldn't the new mom be very protective?  
  We plan to have the cat spayed. But in case the $$$ isn't there for that I have questions if she gets pregnant again.  Since she had large kittens and a big litter will she repeat that??? How can we get a better idea of birth due date? Was sure we had more time. Isn't 6 too many for first time?
   She is sleeping now.

Answer
Hi Wayne

I am very sorry to hear of the loss and as you say, not easy to work out why.  

From what you say, the kittens were probably full term (full covered with fur).  I have had premature kittens and their fur is the last thing to develop so they look very pink as their fur is very spare if they are premature.  It may be that Mum was inexperienced and had the kittens and then cleaned them thoroughly afterwards when it may have been too late for them to breath.

She may have got confused and may be the dog came a bit too close for her comfort and she started looking for somewhere safe to put her kittens which could account for them being found in a few places, but I really think it unlikely that your dog or older cat killed them.

I think this is a case inexperienced Mum and/or a scare perhaps which sent her into labour.  However, one hour to have 6 kittens does seem an extremely quick birth especially for a first time so perhaps on reflection may be no full term.  And no, 6 kittens is not unusual for a first time.

All this can of course be just speculation, so now you need to plan for the future.  Of course the best course of action is to neuter her rather than risk her getting pregnant again.  If she does get pregnant then you need to keep an eye on her and if you think she has been in season and there is any possibility she does get mated, then keep an eye on her teats and as soon as they feel larger an are a bit pinker, then she is probably around 3 weeks pregnant which should give you a starting base to count from.  If at all possible at the delivery date, someone needs to be around all the time to keep an eye on her.  When I have a pregnant girl, I usually take a week off work so that I can be here for any problems.

I hope your girl isn't too sad (yes they do grieve for their babies) and that she will be back to normal soon.  Give her lots of love.  When I had one girl have them too early and they died my girl was very clingy and needed lots of understanding.

Marcia.